HISTORICAL 50CIETYhsmcpa.org/images/thebulletin/1941vol3no1.pdf · Preston, Librarian TRUSTEES Franklin A. Stickler, Chairman Mrs. a. Conrad Jones Katharine Preston H. H. Ganser Nancy

BULLETIN

HISTORICAL 50CIETYMONTGOMERY COUNTY

PENNSYLVANIAJV^ORR/STOWN

£omery

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETYAT IT5 ROOM5 18 EAST PENN STREET

NORRISTOWN.PA.

OCTOBER, 1941

VOLUME III NUMBER 1

PRICE 50 CENTS

Historical Society of Montgomery County

OFFICERS

Nelson P. Fegley, Esq., President

S. Cameron Corson, First Vice-President

Charles Harper Smith, Second Vice-President

George K. Brecht, Esq., Third Vice-President

Mrs. Rebecca W. Brecht^ Recording Secretary

Ella Slinglupp, Corresponding Secretary

Annie B. Molony, Financial Secretary

Lyman a. Kratz, Treasurer

Emily K. Preston, Librarian

TRUSTEES

Franklin A. Stickler, Chairman

Mrs. a. Conrad Jones

Katharine Preston

H. H. Ganser

Nancy P. Highley

Alan W. Corson's House on the Butler Pike, 1931

THE BULLETIN

of the

Historical Society of Montgomery County

Published Semi-Annually—October and April

Volume III October, 1941 Number 1

CONTENTS

Some Aspects of the Underground Railway in theCounties of SoutheasternPennsylvania Joseph Hutchinson Smith . 3

A Brief History and Interpretation of PennsylvaniaGerman Illuminated Writings ("Fractur-Schriften") .Lester K. Kriebel 20

Historical Gleanings Southof Schuylkill—II. Surveysand Boundaries Charles R. Barker 33

Early Pennsylvania Clocksand Their Makers Fred C. Sweinhart 42

The Richards (Reichert)Family of MontgomeryCounty Captain H. M. M. Richards 53

Bible Records (continued) 64

Reports 69

Publication Committee

Charles R. Barker Hannah GerhardChester P. Cook Bertha S. Harry

Emily K. Preston, Editor

Note—On account of the increased size of the Bulletin, Volume IIcontains only four numbers instead of six, as in Volume I.

1

Some Aspects of the Underground Railway inthe Counties of Southeastern Pennsylvania*

By Joseph Hutchinson Smith, M.A.

The getting at the facts and ideas actually underlying thevery genuine support given by a large body of people to theactivities—^not to say the successes—of the UndergroundRailway is a difficult task. To the meagreness of written record referred to by Professor Siebert, must be added thegenuine modesty of the most important workers, the customary avoidance of outward feeling of the majority ofQuakers engaged in the work, and the desire not to foster aspirit of indiscriminate lawlessness in a younger generation.All of these factors must be considered by the student of thesystem, and must be duly weighed and evaluated in connectionwith each individual known to have been engaged in the work.Beneath the improprieties of an Isaac T. Hopper, the taciturnities of the biographer of Elisha Tyson, of Baltimore, theministerial zeal of Elizabeth Newport, of Abington townshipand Philadelphia, the absolute silences of James and LucretiaMott, the very real modesty of Charles Kirk, of Warminstertownship, and the private and unrecorded lives of scores ofother persons known only by name to the present generation,lay a very real idea of natural human justice and a burningdesire to mitigate evils only too obvious at the time. Thatthe efforts of most of these people frequently took an illegaldirection, suggesting an analogy with the smuggling of undesirable aliens across the Mexican and the Canadian borders

of the present time, or with the only too prosperous tradein illegal liquor, is not inconsistent with the idea that there issuch a thing as equity which at all times can be parallel withlaw and more or less at odds with it. Anthony Benezet, of

•Read before the Society November 21,1931.

3

4 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Philadelphia, made a remark very pertinent to this point evenbefore the American Revolution when he cited the sameargument, from a letter of Granville Sharp, "in defence ofthose who think it their duty to protect fugitive slaves." "Ishowed it to Dr. Rush," he says, "inquiring if we should publish it in the papers, he replied, 'They would knock us on thehead if we did.' I believe it will in future be profitably madeuse of." Later events proved that he was correct in his belief.Isaac T. Hopper used that very method of argument beforeJudge Rush, in Philadelphia, and won the freedom of anescaping black man by means of it.

The second point which has not been clearly stated in connection with this question, but which is of the utmost importance in conjunction with it, is the very real influence ofhereditary training and intermarriage upon the actors in thedrama of anti-slavery in Pennsylvania. The names of Lukens,Tyson, and Shoemaker do not appear attached to the earlyremonstrance of the Germantown settlers in 1688, yet they areall names of the earliest settlers of Germantown and theyoccur frequently in the records of the Underground Railway.Dr. Hiram Corson has very clearly shown the wide ramifications of the Corson family connected with this system.

To his roster might be added the name of the Paxsons,allied with the Comlys of Upper Dublin township, the Prices,of West Chester, and more distantly John Vickers, of Lion-ville, in Chester County. The home-center of this generation ortwo of that family was located within the limits of the presentGlenside, and the old house from which they sprang is stillstanding there. There they were near neighbors and relativesof numerous Tysons, who could boast of having furnished apart of the building material for the construction of Independence Hall in Philadelphia—a not inconsiderable fact afterthe patriotisms and the viscissitudes of the Revolution hadpassed them by.

But the chief infiuence in the compact Quaker communitiesof that time in the southeastern counties of Pennsylvania wasthe example, and the preaching and writing, of such men asBenezet, John Woolman, Elias Hicks, Jacob Lindley, of the

' SOME ASPECTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY 5

younger women—Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Newport, MarthaSmith, of Plumstead, in Bucks County, and a number of otherwidely traveled and conscientious Quaker ministers ofrecognized standing and unblemished lives. It is a notable factthat, from the time—^just two hundred years ago this year—when Ralph Sandiford was about to leave his labors forthe slave in Philadelphia, and Benjamin Lay and the youngBencfzet were about to enter upon theirs in the same locality, tothe most heated period of the anti-slavery contest in thethirties of the last age, a continuous line of active propagandists against slavery in all its forms and phases existedwithin the circle of Quakerism or just without the circle. It isa partial refutation of the commonly accepted theory that theQuakerism of that long period was at best a quiescent faith.Quietism never yet caused the lynching of James Lindleysimply because he bore a name which the mob thought belonged to Jacob Lindley. Quietism never made a dying manlike Elias Hicks push away a bed-comfort because it was madeof Southern cotton. Quietism never stole George Washington'srunaway slave in the eighties of the preceding century norcaused the young Isaac Hopper to defy laws, Constitution, andcommon sense. Quietism never produced Elisha Tyson, norhis disciple Doctor Bartholomew Fussell, who aided about twothousand of his fellow-men to reach Canada when they desiredto reach it. The Quakers lost political control of the state ofPennsylvania only a few years before the advent of the Revolution; these men and women to whom there has been reference were the natural result. There was no other practicaloutlet for their effort. They could not fight, they could not takeon an obvious contradiction of duties which involved also thetaking of oaths, they could not control the state which theirancestors had come to America with the idea of controlling,their friends the Indians were being forced rapidly Westwardin spite of all they could do, they drove the thorn deeper intothe irritated side of slavery. There they stood, upholding theirancient:ideas of human worth and human liberty, subvertinglaws when that seemed necessary, hood-winking irate masters,openly transferring thousands of dollars worth of property to


a land where it should be property no longer, year after year,generation after generation, even after the Civil War had firstsounded the knell of the whole system of slavery. The nationaland world-wide significance of what they had accomplisheddawned upon their children and grandchildren only after theCivil War had made their cause popular and patriotic. It ismainly to them that we owe what we know of the whole affair.

As one surveys the record of this fantastic system oftravel, it sometimes appears odd that any of these abolitionistsof the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries found time toearn a living for themselves and their families, and it is a sadfact that a number of them impoverished themselves in oneway and another to their own permanent detriment. In themain, they were men of substance and standing in theirseveral communities. They were almost entirely owners ofland and men of practical affairs. They numbered in theirmidst farmers, manufacturers of pottery, lawyers, ministers,medical men, editors, poets, lecturers, philanthropists, and afew people of society. Their houses still stand dotted over thecountryside and by the roads of the eastern counties of Pennsylvania. One may see them without difficulty. Seth Lukens'large white farmhouse stands near the Springhouse-Sumney-town Pike just within the bounds of Kulpsville; GeorgeCorson's quaint dwelling still overlooks Plymouth meetinghouse just as it did when the artist Hovenden later occupiedit; William Foulke's station on the way to Quakertown hasbecome a country club and boasts a polo field upon its broadacres; Abel Fitzwater's almost palace still stands not far fromPort Providence; Alan Corson's house is completely unoccupied and in the first stages of ruin but with the shadowsflickering over its white surface in an entirely charmingfashion. The houses of the Norristown advocates of a newerorder have suffered a more nearly total eclipse. Only one ofthem is standing or is easily to be traced. Jacob L. Paxsonformerly occupied the property now owned by Saint Patrick'sChurch; Doctor William Corson had his office at 116 EastMain Street; Isaac Roberts, Senior, dwelt in three differenthouses, all of them gone; Daniel Ross' capacious story-and-a-

SOME ASPECTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY 7

half frame house with little stable to the side disappearedyears ago; John Augusta's barber-shop on Main street nearlyopposite the Music Hall no longer exists; Thomas Read's houseat 702 Swede Street has lost only the panes of its lowerwindows.

Far worse than this, it is no longer possible to credit anyof the local tales which have been told about the flight ofWilliam Parker and his friends from Christiana to Canadaafter the tragedy of eighty years ago. Doctor Hiram Corsondoes not substantiate the account given by Jacob L. Paxsou;Isaac Roberts, Junior, contradicts Doctor Hiram Corson'stwo published accounts, and William Parker contradicts allof them and three Chester countians mentioned by DoctorRobert C. Smedley. Furthermore, Grace Anna Lewis, ofChester county, never mentioned within the knowledge of anyone now living the part assigned to her in this same celebratedescape. A clue to the unraveling of this confusion of statements may possibly exist in an as yet uninvestigated remarkof that most able colored man, William Still.

As a compensation for these notable iaciiwae in the presentmap of Norristown, one may travel from Corner Stores inChester county to the next underground railway station at thesite of Daniel Ross' house in Norristown upon a trifle morethan ten miles of the very underground railway used between1840 and the last year of the system. To do this, one leaves theformer metropolis of Corner Stores—a commercial centerwhen Phoenixville was a mere milling district—passes theOld Bull Tavern, crosses the Schuylkill at Pawling's, passesthe home of John James Audubon and the country mansion ofthe Wetherill family, leaves Schrack's Corner behind, andarrives safely via the inn at Jeffersonville. It was a route achild could travel safely, and one which a child of elevenalmost did travel when a load of slaves had to be forwardedin harvest time. It is an interesting drive by motor, passing atthe back of the hills of Valley Forge and for a third |0f thedistance on the very ridge of a water-shed. In the time of therailway the point of greatest danger was the inn at Jeffersonville.

g BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

One must not suppose unguardedly that none but' Quakersinvolved themselves in the intrigues of the rail'way. TwoRoman Catholics are listed in Wilmington, Delaware, oneMennonite is mentioned in lower Lancaster county, the upperreaches of Montgomery county furnish the names of a numberof Dunkards and of several Episcopalians, and Norristownyields the reverend Samuel Aaron and his especial Baptists.As a matter of fact, all of the Quakers active in the work werealmost lost to their own membership as long as that worklasted. Those who hold to the theory of Quietism in the Faithmay take note.

If one wishes to study the whole range of the UndergroundRailway system, which extended in its entirety from theshores of England to the city of San Francisco, one may do soin the thorough but not exhaustive volume of ProfessorWilbur H. Siebert. It is entitled The Underground RailroadFrom Slavery To Freedom, and was published at New Yorkand at London in 1898. It is a book filled with excellent illustrations and the fruits of long years of research. Only theconcluding sentence in it is open to serious doubt.

A more limited view of the system need be no less interesting. Between the years 1919 and 1931, I was able to collect anumber of authentic anecdotes from several of the children orgrandchildren of the original workers and an absolutely newfact from a man contemporary with the day of the riot atChristiana.

An "Orthodox" Friend of West Chester, Deborah Windle,told me of her grandfather about whom extremely little hasbeen recorded elsewhere. Her account was interesting as indicating an entirely new route of travel between Kimbertonand Lancaster county. Between 1800 and 1820, Thomas Jackson, who lived on the family place near Geiger's Mills, wasworking in a field with a colored man. Both could see the roadfor a long way. Suddenly the man threw his implement to theground and announced that "Massa" was coming. "Bide mytime now and I'll get out all right," said he, and he disappeared Immediately. Shortly after, a man rode up and askedwhether a person of a certain name were working for Mr.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAIUWAY 0

Jackson, and where he was. Thomas Jackson informed theinquirer that he did not know where the man was, but askedhow much he would take for him as a runaway. "The masteraccepted a hundred dollars for his man, for he never expectedto see him again." Thomas Jackson received such passengerson the railway from Emmor Kimber, and sent them beforedaylight to "Canaday." He sent bills ahead, without the addressee's name, telling how many slaves were on the way.

A celebrated station not many miles from, but so far as isknown never connected with, that of Emmor Kimber was thestation kept by Elijah F. Pennypacker at Corner Stores. Agreat deal of misinformation has been collecting about thenames of both of these men in recent years. The completefacts are yet to appear. Elijah Pennypacker's early publiclife, his useful services in the legislature and in connectionwith the Canal Commission of the state, is already well appreciated. He joined the Underground Railway in 1840. Herefused a nomination to the Congress of the United Statesbecause he had become convinced that it was not his duty tosupport a government which tolerated slavery. His attitudewas the same as that of William Lloyd Garrison, whoseLiberator first appeared just one hundred years ago, and wasnot unlike that of the Mahatma Gandhi. He was a surveyor,an administrator of wills, a farmer, and to one of his friends"the most ungrateful public-servant he ever knew." One of hissurveys of land was used in the Chester Valley as lately as1913, and was found to be entirely accurate and entirely adequate to a transfer of land from Colkett Walker to one of hisneighbors. The account of him written for William Still byGrace Anna Lewis is considered particularly good. Most of theslaves that passed through his hands came by way of GraceAnna Lewis's and Doctor Edwin Fussell's near Kimberton,many were conducted by Norris Maris who farmed one of theLewis farms, and most of them departed into the hands ofDaniel Ross of Norristown. Slaves usually came in the evening, and more in the Autumn than at any other time in theyear for then they could obtain food in the fields of ripe comwhich bordered upon the roads. The women and children were


taken away from his bam in a dearborn, and the men wereallowed to walk away alone. They always followed the roads."One evening," says Sarah C. Pennypacker, his daughter, "wewere sitting at the supper-table and there came a knock at thedoor. Father opened it and saw a colored man there. 'Arethere any more of you?' he asked. 'Yes,' the man, said, andthen Father told him to tell the others who were with him to gostraight through to the kitchen, and told him to lead themand show them the way—and eight men filed through." Thefamily always saved discarded clothing "for the fugitives."Sarah 0. Pennypacker remembers only one serious case, whenthe masters were so close upon their slaves that Elijah Penny-packer took them away without telling even his wife where hewas going. "There were quiet consultations between Motherand Father, there was talk of disguises, and an air of expectancy. Sometime that night father disappeared. He wasaway all the next day, and the following morning he appeared.Mother and a visitor sat in the front room [overlooking theroad], and sewed and sewed, but didn't talk, all the time hewas away." Such are the memories of the families of abolitionists who were also members of the Underground Railway.

It-is especially fortunate that something of this sort maybe added to Doctor Hiram Corson's account of the anti-slaverygroups in Upper Dublin, in Horsham, and in Moreland townships, and that two slight inaccuracies in private names maybe corrected. According to M. Elizabeth Smith, who was oldenough in her youth to remember the later days of the anti-slavery struggle with great clearness, the following UpperDublin Friends, none of whom are mentioned by Doctor Corson,were very active in the struggle in her father's neighborhood:Rachel Barker, a well-known minister among Friends, and alarge and powerful woman, as well as a forceful and outspoken worker; Lucas Paul, Benjamin Riche, and the Glrlyfamily. None of those Friends mentioned by Doctor Corsonas being doubtful were ever alluded to by her. Thomas andHannah Quinby Atkinson, who lived between Jarrettown andUpper Dublin meeting, and Mary Lightfoot, were mentionedparticularly as being more "open" in their activities. The

SOME ASPECTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

Atkinson home was used as a depot for clothing, and as a sewing headquarters for anti-slavery fairs. Most of the otherworkers also had sewing parties at their homes. Among otherlittle things which went to liven such parties was a trickwhich Hannah Atkinson invariably played when she insistedupon trying on each garment as it was completed. M. Elizabeth Smith, who was then M. Elizabeth Comly, daughter ofJohn M. and Mary Ann T. Comly, spent a week at one of theanti-slavery meetings [fairs] held in Horticultural Hall, Philadelphia, in company with Mary Lightfoot, and helped to takecharge of the table supplied by "The Upper Dublin Anti-Slavery Society." She was about twenty years of age at thattime.^ She remembered that only Charles Roberts, CroasdaleTwining, and her father actually harbored slaves in thatneighborhood. Charles Paxson, husband of Agnes T. Paxson,sympathized with them but would not harbor slaves. Theyused to clothe the people who passed through their hands, andto give them food enough to last one or two days beforesending them on. Most of John M. Comly's service came before1847. There were many ways of getting information about themovements of slave-catchers, especially since John Comlydrove often to Germantown with market produce, and to otherplaces on business. Two vague stories have been preservedregarding the slaves themselves: a slave Mary stayed withCroasdale Twining while her daughter was kept at John M.Comly's, at another time an older female slave, so ignorantof the relative value of the United States coinage that shethrew away as useless a silver piece which had been givento her by a member of the Comly family, stayed with John M.Comly. The next station above the Comly's was located twelvemiles farther north—one would like to think that it was thestation kept by an uncle of Mary Ann, William H. Johnson,of Buckingham. The slaves were removed concealed beneathbags of wheat in a dearborn, as if the wheat were being takento the mill of one "Billy" Graeme, miller.

comparison of dates and incidents proves this to have been in 1859.


An account of several miles of the road between Wilmington, Delaware, and Downington, Pennsylvania, was given tome in a manner peculiarly instructive, because as Mrs. Pylespoke of it I could see the road coming rapidly over the hiUsfrom the south-west, passing across the Baltimore Pike whereI had stood, and disappearing as a narrow tree-bordered lanea little way below the old inn. This road was a part of thathuge letter C of travel which .extended through the country,indirectly, between Wilmington and Philadelphia. It was theway which gathered up with it in its course the other mainpathways from the south and west which ran. east of theSusquehanna river in the direction of Philadelphia. Mrs.Pennock Pyle, of Hamorton, a daughter of that JosephLancaster who was once .a keeper of the Pennsbury Inn,situated between Chadd's Ford and Old Kennett meetinghouse on the Baltimore Pike, said, "A lot of colored men wouldcome across that little back road from Dinah MendenhaU's,and they would stop and ask directions of my father. Theywere always on their way to Eusebius Barnard's, the firsthouse the other side of Barnard's crossing Ion the Lenape-Kennett trolley line.] Barnard was a rather hard name toremember, and ^fter while they would bring little slips ofpaper with just the name on it, and would ask the way." Shecould just remember having seen a party of colored men whohad stopped and been directed by Joseph Lancaster, and shehad heard her father tell about such experiences in after yearsto people who asked him about such things. A great manyslaves went across that road, from Wilmington and the southwestern part of the Chester county, on their way North.Numbers of these later passed through Kimberton, CornerStores, and Norristown. Some few of them were switchedbackward just beyond Corner Stores by Elijah P. Penny-packer, and were sent across the Schuylkill at Phoenixville bythe bridge near the older short-ford into the upper end ofMontgomery county. Others were switched backward from apoint^ nearer Valley Forge to Charles Adamson's at Comer

^The farm of Lewis Peart, after 1844.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY ^3

Stores, or to James Wood at Moore Hall, were taken across thelong-ford to Port Providence in canoes, were passed throughthe hands of Abel Fitzwater—^just back of Port Providence—and were often sent still farther westward to a Jacobs, exactlyon the site of the present station of the Pennsylvania Railroadat Mont Clare in Montgomery county. There they disappeartemporarily even to our eyes. Many stations in the upper endof Montgomery county have never been completely investigated. I can add^ only that William W. Taylor, of Upper Provi^dence township, directed his passengers from a concealmentunder the bridge of his barn up the road a short distance toThomas Hopkins' place just west of Arcola.

Owing to the fact that I was directed to George Steele, ofChester county, by a daughter of Joseph Scarlett of Christiana, I can publish what might at one time have been considered evidence too damaging to publish. It is just eightyyears since the riot at Christiana, and the direct antipathiesof that period are practically all dead. I met George Steele,a man then of nearly ninety years but tall and erect, atBirmingham meeting-house shortly after the close of the warin Europe. In speaking of the riot he said, "I heard thefiring, and I was going to Lancaster that morning, and Idecided that I would go by the house where the firing was,and try to find out what had happened. And I met two coloredmen on the road, that did some wood-chopping for me, cominghome, and they were highly elated. 'Wictory,' one of 'em says,and they told me about it, and I told them that they were upagainst the U. S. government now, and all those that had hadany part in it had better set out for Canada—and I think theywent." "It didn't appear in the evidence at the trials, butJoseph Scarlett told his colored men that the catchers werenear, and to take their guns and go." The engaging up-countryDutch accent upon the word "victory" may bring the sounds

3For this bit of information, as well as for others kindly given, I amindebted to Charles Major of Norristown. Miss Nancy Highley of Norria-town informs me that Charles Corson took slaves which he had receivedfrom Doctor Hiram Corson to Bucks county by night.

BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

of the Christiana Riot a little more clearly to the ears of thosefamiliar with the speech only of Philadelphia.

The most truly humorous thing which ever happened inconnection with the Underground Railway was that display ofgenuine human feeling which could be counted upon almostinvariably when an involuntary worker was suddenly facedwith the real issues which lay beneath the struggle againstslavery. Alfred D. Sharpless, late of West Chester, told methat a year or two prior to 1860 he remembered returningfrom school and finding about five darkies sitting with theirbacks to the fence which surrounded his father's propertyon Dean street, their legs stretched out in front of them, andpaying no attention to anybody. When his father camehome he questioned them and, after exclaiming, "Why this isno place for you to be sitting," took them into the house. Thatnight he sent them [Alfred thought] to Lionville, a point atwhich at least two lines of the railway joined before it proceeded to Kimberton. This one act of kindness could have cost

the elder Sharpless five thousand dollars in fines alone. Noone knows how far these slaves had walked or how far theyhad to walk before they could begin earning their own livingsat the very bottom of the economic scale. It is an easy taskto count how much Daniel Gibbons, Thomas Garrett, DoctorBartholomew Fussell, or William Still owed the United Statesgovernment on this basis; and how much the Declaration ofIndependence and the preamble of the Constitution owed' tothem. The United States has been indeed a youthful nation;we can but hope that she will gain in wisdom as time passes.

The routes of travel in the eastern end of Montgomerycounty have never been sufficiently studied, and at this distance from the great period of "storm and stress" that taskmay well prove to be impossible. A few hints and surmisesare not entirely out of order, for the abolitionists of the section were so few and the members of the Underground Railwayso much more few that a mistake in identification is unlikelyto occur. The Old York Road is the most eastern road inPennsylvania which can be named with any degree of certainty. Along its length, certainly as early as 1857—and in

SOME ASPECTS OF THE-UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

one instance as far back as 1837—there lived a number of

people known to have been actively engaged in the operationof the railway. These included: Jacob C. White, a member ofthe Acting Committee of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, at 100 Old York Road in Philadelphia City; James andLucretia Mott at "Roadside," just beyond the present cityline; near them the country seat of Morris L. Hallowell; inJenkintown, Doctor Charles Shoemaker; near the presentWillow Grove, Croasdale Twining about whom I am able tolearn nothing; half way between Willow Grove and Horshammeeting, on the right hand side of the Doylestown Pike, DavidNewport, Justice of the Peace; and the two colored tenants ofDavid Newport, the only two colored men in Moreland township.

Farther west, and running in a north-westerly direction,the Limekiln Pike which passed through Jarrettown. NearPittsville on this Pike, there lived the elder Isaac Michenerand his wife Martha Thomas Parry—a connection by marriage of Charles Kirk, the traveling companion of ElizabethNewport, and a station-master in his own right since 1836.Within a few miles of Jarrettown, lived the Atkinsons, theLightfoots, and the Comlys. There is some published evidenceindicating a possible west to east route at this point, butnothing entirely definite.

Farther west still, there was the definite double line fromNorristown and from Pljonouth Meeting to William Foulke'snear Penllyn; from there probably to Quakertown, Buckscounty, and possibly toward Buckingham in the same county.

A few miles farther west and north lay the line directlyfrom Chester county to Quakertown, by way of Seth Lukens'farm on the Towamencin Creek, at the edge of Kulpsville. Itis not known who brought the slaves from Chester county, butthey were taken to Richard Moore's on the southern outskirtsof Quakertown, between 1845 and 1853. Before that time anduntil about 1849, this Kulpsville station was kept by SethLukens' father, George Luken, who lived on the Forty-footRoad to Lansdale. It is probable that Seth Lukens' passengerswere forwarded most often from the more southerly group

Ig BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

living in Upper and Lower Providence townships in Montgomery county, and it is possible that Esther Lewis sent herfirst passengers to George Luken rather than over the entirethirty mile journey to Quakertown. There is no known evidence that the Norristown or the Penllyn stations forwardedto Kulpsville.

These lines all focused more or less upon Quakertown, themost important station north of Philadelphia and east ofReading. Here, as is well known, lived Richard Moore, son-in-law of the elder William Jackson, and father-in-law of IsaacWarner, the younger (?), of Hatboro.^ There is ample published evidence that Richard Moore forwarded slaves south

east to Philadelphia, as well as north to Montrose and Friends-ville, but it is with pleasure that I am able to add a bit of localtradition given to me by E. Irene Meredith, the daughter ofone of his apprentices. Richard Moore was the only abolitionist of a more pronounced type of which she had heard inthat neighborhood, and he took slaves in a Conestoga wagonamong pottery which was being delivered.

Of the Friends whom I have mentioned, far the greaternumber were "Hicksites," that party of the Society at thattime being numerically in the majority. It is of interest toexamine into the characters of all of these men and women.

Richard Moore is known to have been of that uncompromisingand righteous type of Quaker known and revered for hisintegrity; Thomas Garrett is spoken of as a humorist; EdwinH. Coates was thought to have been vain of his own accomplishments among the abolitionists and to have been loquacious regarding his trade; John M. Comly appears to havebeen a discreet and worthy farmer with just a touch ofhumor; Elijah F. Pennypacker was of a' solemn and determined temper allied to much gentleness and breadth of vision;William W. Taylor was kno"wn to be contentious and not dearlyloved; Doctor Jacob L. Paxson was a faith-healer, curing 'Tjylaying on of hands," an advanced thinker but unsteady;

"^This is a part of the published and accepted genealogy of RichardMoore; I am told that it is completely erroneous.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY 1'J

Charles Kirk was among his friends a wit and a teller ofamusing tales; William Foulke was "one of the substantial,conservative, respected, neighborhood men of his timeGrace Anna Lewis was so modest in speaking of her own partin the Underground Railway that no thoroughly good accountof her exists: Lucretia Mott is remembered by the children ofher one-time hosts and hostesses as a giver of gifts, which theparents thought valuable but which the children did notalways keep; Abel Fitzwater, a member of the Dunkard faith,was a "man of means" and of spectacular generosities; DavidNewport was note-worthy for his sense of justice, and hisknowledge of the Negroes gained at Benjamin Hallowell'sschool in the South; William H. Johnson was known for hislearning; and Emmor Kimber for the remarkable penmanshipwhich he taught his daughters, but which he could not usehimself. An amusing anecdote is told of Edwin H. Coates,which seems on a second telling to be not entirely at hisexpense. Saving the pun upon his name, he was a tailor—amaker of those plain Quaker coats which are such curiositiesat this day. He had been made a delegate to the World Conference of Abolitionists, and some of his friends had feltobliged to warn him against what they supposed were some ofhis worst failings. He felt particularly obliged not to talk ofhis calling. He arrived at the conference, and for a time allwent well with him. He spoke so eloquently that at last someone queried, "Mr. Coates, to which house of Congress do youbelong—^the House of Representatives or the Senate?" Thenhe confessed, "I belong to neither. I am a tailor."®

The brunt of the contest against slavery, as is so oftenthe case in actual warfare, fell upon the children. Witness thenames of Elias Hicks Corson, Summer Pennypacker, Thad-deus Stevens Kenderdine, and Simon Cameron Corson. Oneof Sarah C. Pennypacker's earliest recollections is of her sister

5This excellent tale I owe to Sarah C. Pennypacker, the daughter ofone of Edwin H. Coates' best customers. With respect to the two namesapplied to the youthful Gertrude Pennypacker, "Woolly-head" was apolitical nick-name of the period.


Gertrude sobbing* in the yard of the Public School at Phoenix-ville because she had been called a "Woolly-head" and a"Nigger-lover." Once Sarah herself fled to her grandmotherAdamson's because she had been told that her father had donesomething for which he might be arrested. At another time,a near neighbor, who was on good personal terms with thefamily and who at the time was a guest in the house, said thatshe would like to see all the abolitionists hanged in a line fromthe Valley hills across to that house.

"In view of all this," says Professor Siebert, "it is safeto say that the Underground Railroad was one of the greatestforces which brought on the Civil War, and thus destroyedslavery." One can imagine the Quaker station-keepers andtheir Dunkard and Mennonite allies voicing a positive negation, but so the recent verdict of history has been written.Individually, one can hear them agreeing with an Englishpoet of the time of Queen Elizabeth:®

"And though it have been thought as true as steel.Which people prate, and preach above the rest,Yet could I never any reason feelTo think Vox populi vox Dei est."

A very unusual letter was recently saved from the burning, of which a part may with propriety be quoted:

Schuylkill 3/5/1885Edwin H. Coates

Esteemed friend

We seldom of late years see each other but I frequently think of theewhen my mind turns back in review of what has transpired the past halfCentury. Most of those earnest and loving souls who were active in thememorable anti-slavery movement have passed to another condition ofbeing. Sometimes in my quiet introversions I look back with wonder inview of what we passed through, attending meeting i[n] school houses,and all places w[h]ere discussion of the subject could get a footing,attending conventions, raising funds, and assisting the care-worn fngi-

^George Gascoigne.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

tive, a complication and full measure of duty, but those earnest soulswhich were banded together by a conviction and love of the eternal principles of right and their application to the [human] race without regardto sect or nation were equal to the occasion. The poet says "new occasions teach new duties."

The slave [s] reached emancipation through the necessities of [the]way, they are still much oppressed, and are laboring under serious dis-ab[i]Iities, still their condition is much improved. They now have theirnatural rights and are at liberty (as they will) to rise in the scale ofbeing.

thy true friendE P Penn3rpacker

A Brief History and Interpretation of Penn

sylvania German Illuminated Writings

("Fractur-Schriften") *

By Lester K. Kriebel

The fascinating subject, Pennsylvania German IlluminatedWritings, has been assigned to me for discussion at the historical meeting this afternoon. Few subjects could be ofgreater cultural and religious interest, and none has receivedgreater abuse from writers and speakers. To understand properly the subject of our discussion we shall do well to defineIlluminated Writings or "Fractur-Schriften."

Definition

Any book, document, or page in writing as distinguishedfrom print may be classified as a manuscript or "writing."The term, illuminated writing, as applied to hand coloredmanuscripts may refer to the ornamentation of the text, suchas the decoration of an initial-letter or word in the manuscript, with gold or silver, or in brilliant colors. This art mayextend farther to miniature designs on the margin of the page,or a form of elaborate tracery and embellished borders.

The German word "Fractur" refers to a certain type ofdesign of Gothic letters, the verb form "fractura" meaning towrite or make Gothic letters or figures. This form of writingand the accompanying illumination applies, then, to ornaments and other details adapted from the Gothic style andapplied to manuscript pages. Thus, our subject, PennsylvaniaGerman Fractur, represent nothing less than the preservationin the modern age, and the further development, of the ancientand medieval art of illuminated writing.

*Read before the Society April 26, 1941.

20

I

From Collection in the

Schwenkfelder Historical Library

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN ILLUMINATED WRITINGS 21

This art of illumination in Western Europe had its originamong the Celtic peoples in Ireland about A. D. 521. Thence itreached the Scottish coast through Irish missionaries, fromhere on to England, and finally to Germany through the greatChristian pioneer, St. Boniface of Devonshire, England (A. D.680-754). He carried with him a highly ornamented book ofthe Gospels, probably remnants or influences of the Celtic art,made and preserved by zealous missionaries. In Germany theparticular type of Fractur design was created and perfectedby Leonhard Wagner (A. D. 1500). He had been a BenedictineMonk in Augsburg about A. D. 1507 and was employed byKing Maximilian in the creative design of his beautiful work.

For centuries the manuscripts of Western Europe hadtheir origin and development in the West. However, Orientaldesigns did creep in at various times, but only through aperiod of filtration and assimilation.

Extent

A prevalent use of, and interest in, this art throughoutEurope extended during the "Middle Ages" and the Renaissance. Monasteries were the repositories of this beautiful andinteresting work fostered and perpetuated by the monks.Bibles, Devotional books, and kindred literature were favoritesubjects for marginal and interlinear decoration and embellishments. Only recently has the writer seen a beautiful specimen of such an illuminated New Testament prepared byFrench Monks during the Middle Ages, on exhibition in theWilliam Randolph Hearst Art Collection in New York City.In Germany the art expanded into the more practical, domesticlife of the people and found expression in common householdobjects.

As Edwin Lefevre explained in the Saturday Evening Post,houses during A. D. 1500-1600 were dark and gloomy becausewindows were few and small. Often these were dimmed byparchment and shutters. Hence these color-loving peoplepainted their homes, furniture, and various domestic objectsin gay bright colors to bring cheer and beauty into their daily


life. Later when sheet glass was commonly used and homeswere better lighted, even a greater interest was manifest indecoration and color. If homes could not be sumptuous theycould at least be colorful. -Moreover, this art in the home ofthe simple Protestant folk took the place of the gorgeousdecoration of the Catholic Church established for the enjoyment of its people.

Probably two factors largely contributed to the decline ofthe art of illuminated writing: First, the prevalent work andinterest of the ecclesiastics during the Reformation detractedfrom this work. Second, the invention and extensive use ofprinting replaced the manuscripts with their beautiful handwork. Hence this fine art ended approximately at the beginningof the German emigration to America, about 1680. As HenryBorneman so aptly states in his book, Pennsylvania GerrnanIlluminated Manuscripts, it enjoyed a period of more than athousand years during which more than thirty generationsenjoyed this grand movement. It took several centuries beforethe art had spent itself.

Its last notable use and practice was made by the Pennsylvania Germans in this country covering a period of abouiba hundred years, 1750-1850, and probably attained its bestejfpression between 1795-1820. It occupied a conspicuous placein the religious, educational and social life of the people as weshall see in subsequent chapters.

Use

The illuminated writing or "Fractur" in this country wascharacteristically Pennsylvania German. Its best examplescame from the period when there had been little or no assimilation of the environment in America on the part of thepioneers.

The beauty was generally limited to objects of utility.Useful things of the household were decorated. These includedsuch objects as chests, barns, butter-molds, waffle-irons, baptismal and marriage certificates,' house-blessings, hymn-books, etc.


Motifs and Devices Employed

The designs employed for decorative purposes in the Pennsylvania German Fractur work were all symbolic types for thepurpose of teaching some beautiful religious truth or lesson.Naturally the artist would use the symbols with which he andhis readers were best acquainted. The literature most familiarto them was the Bible. Moreover, its symbols afforded anexcellent opportunity to teach fundamental truths as well asto beautify the home. So the artist used the symbols found inthe Holy Scripture, and particularly those in the Song ofSolomon and in the New Testament. One must remember thatearly Christianity was very congenial to religious symbolism.The primitive Christian art found in the catacombs nearRome is but one vertification of this fact. The Old Testamentfairly sparkles with its mystic imagery, and the New Testament affords an indescribable beauty through the lofty lessonsof the fascinating parables given by the master Teacher. Themost common and outstanding of the symbols employed are:the lily, rose, pearl of great price, corner stone (which thebuilders rejected; diamond). Virgin Sophia (wisdom), stemof Jesse's rod, turtle-doves, pomegranates, tulip, circle, stars,peacocks, formal geometric designs, etc.

Interpretation

Thus for the most part the Pennsylvania German "Fractur" was symbolic or interpretive. The purpose of illuminationwas to beautify the object of devotion and to clarify its meaning. The design or symbol used was distinctly religious incharacter. And the purpose of the symbol was to teach,through a visible sign, something that was invisible. Thetruth intended to be taught through these manuscripts was tobe found in the Bible and not in the occult. The symbols thatwere used typify Christianity and do not have a magical orpagan meaning.

The pictures and designs which were drawn and paintedsuggest some fact, idea or truth. The aim of the artist was notto produce some pictorial likeness, but some form which would

24 BUI/LE?riN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

suggest the thought and teaching in his mind. The artistsought a realism of the heart. Instead of picturing nature andthe world of sense he employed images to describe the quest ofthe soul for the Ineffable. By an underlying faith he raisedand sublimated his objects, giving them a new meaning andan abiding value. For him nature became a gate-way to thegarden of God. It was through these means the teacher soughta way back to the heart of God. To the artist, nature did notbecome an intrinsic, beautiful object. He used it for a muchdeeper and more significant purpose. Nature became a revelation of the deeper qualities of life, a symbolism of thingsbeyond herself. By thus using nature as medium he energizedher, and at the same time pointed to the deep realities ofanother world.

This ingenious work had a peculiar effect upon the uninformed of a later day. It resulted in the obscurity of designand not a photographic reproduction. Hence, it became difficult to identify the meaning and source of the designs andsymbols employed by the teacher artists. Consequently theignorant frequently miss the mark as to the interpretationand source of the material employed. Indeed, some even go sofar as to claim that the ingenious religious symbols on thebeautiful, Pennsylvania German, red barns are "Hex" marksto drive or keep away witches and evil spirits, because of thesuperstitious beliefs of the Pennsylvania German people.Nothing could be more remote from the truth concerning theoriginal purpose of these interesting symbols employed tospeak a devout and meaningful language. The PennsylvaniaGerman loved color. He used it richly, painting practically allof his barns and stables bright red. His artistic sense andinnate feeling for beauty forbade him to leave a whole sideof his barn a solid red mass. So he was compelled to decoratehis buildings with designs in beautiful and contrasting colors.He did the natural thing, namely, used the designs and symbols which he knew best and which had an intrinsic valueand meaning. The very ones he had on his household utensilsand manuscripts he employed as decorative barn designs.And, even if the second or third generation has forgotten the


significance of these designs, one may rightfully maintainthat the main motive of these nature and art loving people isa sincere desire for ornamentation.

Two factors led to the encouragement of the religiousS3mibols in Pennsylvania German "Fractur" work. First wasthe famous theological tradition in which the language, figuresof speech and images used from the Scriptures easily adaptedthemselves to the interpretive art found in the "Fractur."Second, a prevalent flower hymnology in a large measureexplained the designs employed in the illuminated writings.Numerous lengthy hymns had been written by pious, didacticpoets emulating the beauty and virtue of flowers such as therose, lily, the blossoming stem of Jesse's rod, etc. In the latterhalf of the hymn Christ was likened to, or substituted for, theflowers and their beauty and the virtues applied to Him as theSaviour and Redeemer of the world. This prevalent flowerhymnology stimulated many curious, interesting and fascinating designs on the part of artists in "Fractur" work.

Gharacteeistics

The Medieval Art had grown out of an age captivated bysymbolism and allegory. The early Pennsylvania German Artrevealed abstract ideas through primitive technique. That isthe designs employed were primitive ones, but they were notexecuted in a primitive way, indeed quite the contrary. Thepainters exhibited great artistic taste and an equal intellectualability. An intelligent study of only a few original exampleswill reveal this fact in a remarkable degree.

As a rule the artist used little or no perspective in hisdesigns and paintings. At once this gave the impression of aprimitive and ancient, but not crude, work. Moreover, he wasdominated by a geometrical balance which was quite in harmony with good design. Thus he acquired a directness andsimplicity, not unlike the early masters, which is peculiar toall primitively executed arts. The general atmosphere of thiswork breathed forth a definite character and personalitypossessing great depth and spiritual meaning. In many respects the designs were symbolic of the struggle of the early


Pennsylvania German settlers to a slowly surrendering nature.Consequently, one must not forget that this art had a vitalmessage for the people of its day.

The Pennsylvania German decorators employed an effective use of shadow behind the designs. This was accomplishedby two methods. One method was by gradation of color withthe brush. The other was by effective use of "cut-outs" frequently pasted on backgrounds of varying shades. This usageof shadow behind the designs was employed extensively byEuropean decorators. The shadow scheme is lacking entirelyin all Oriental influences.

The artists were conscious of the effective use of the balanc

ing of opposites. The effect was striking and pleasing. Hencelight and shadow as well as color were employed to balanceeach other. This fact becomes very obvious in the construction of formal geometric designs, decorative borders, etc., aswell as in the symbols and religious characters themselves.The rule of balancing of opposites was well studied in the useof color, design and light.

The decorators also had a thorough knowledge of the useof the primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, which theyemployed to great advantage. They never used the solid redand black colors which clash. Invariably they toned thesecolors into a beautiful shade of old rose, a mellow gold, and adark blue. They also employed a fine use of the complementarycolors of red and green.

In composition and construction of the decorative elementsthe artist had a unique way of avoiding monotony. This applies both to color and design. Large open spaces on the manuscript were avoided. Where small designs were employed tofill these spaces a large variety was introduced. Border constructions varied greatly in color and composition. It is safeto state that there is absolutely no monotony.

Characteristic Symbols

A favorite design was the heart, inside of which somefavorite stanza of a hymn was inserted in decorative design.Frequently on a rectangular page one such heart appeared in


each of the four corners. A favorite Bible verse or several

stanzas of a hymn would then occupy the center of the pagewith elaborate initial decoration and interlinear embellish

ments. From the heart design often was constructed a tree,vine or fruit, teaching the immortal lesson that out of theheart comes the issue of life. This symbolic figure sometimestook strange fantastic, but beautiful, forms, teaching a truthnever to be forgotten.

The basic structure of many designs was a pot of earth,either plain or with elaborate decoration, suggesting the baserelements of nature and man. It represents an origin that wasperishable. The design was then built up arising to a finerspiritual form, including the heart design in varying motifsand culminating at the top in a crown of righteousness, symbolized by the circle of perfection, and some form suggestingthe Trinity, involving a combination of three objects orfigures.

The use of stars provides an interesting subject for study.The five-pointed star stood for personality. The six-pointedstar symbolized the star of David, and was used in connectionwith Old Testament prophecy concerning the coming andmission of the Christ. The seven-pointed star represented thesoul. The eight-pointed star still presents an enigma, themeaning of which remains unknown. The nine-pointed star isthe symbol of the spirit or perfection. Considerable originality,as well as creative artistic beauty and ability, was employed inweaving these various star designs into the entire picturewhich was to teach its own unique lesson.

Continuing the interpretation of symbols one must observethat the turtle-dove was a symbol of love and beauty. The peacock, a favorite subject, represented royalty and a kingship ofthe spirit. Frequently one observes in the Pennsylvania German "Fractur" work curiously pointed designs, sprockets orradiating lines emerging from objects such as circles. Thisstructure is the artist's method, primitive but effective, ofteaching the lesson that all radiation proceeds from the heart.Often the circle of righteousness, constructed as the climaxof some design, will possess this radiation.


The tulip is one of the most favorite designs for decorations in Pennsylvania German "Fractur." Its origin has beentraced to Persia, and the name itself is derived from thePersian word "dulband" (turban) and gradually pronounced"tulband." This Eastern flower did not find its way intoWestern Europe until the middle of the sixth century, whenit was received with great interest in Germany, the LowCountries, and England. Its use in art was not prevalent untilabout the fifteenth century. It is quite natural that the Pennsylvania German artists should have used the tulip as afavorite flower for decoration, especially because its outlineswere so essentially simple and so rich in line and color. In theilluminated writings under consideration the PennsylvaniaGerman tulip design has been found as a decoration on aboutthirty-five different types of objects.

Various forms of the Trinity are expressed in "Fractur"designs. A favorite teaching was the conception of the Trinityof the lower form of man, and of the higher form of man,finally radiating from the circle of perfection. This conceptwas woven into intricate and elaborate designs of flowers andfigures.

In the later period of illuminated writings crude figures ofangels and angel heads appeared. Human figures and animallife are conspicuous because of their almost total absence. Theentire artistic construction, thought and teaching centeredaround the Biblical symbols aforementioned.

A general observation of the work which has been studiedand presented reveals a balance of love, wisdom and power,expressed in ingenious and. colorful designs. This admirablemethod of visual education made a lasting impression on theyouth of that day which in turn expressed itself in the lives ofour worthy ancestors.

Types of "Fractur"

There are two types of Pennsylvania German "Fractur."The one is a transparent water-color type painted directlywith simple water colors. The other type, arid the most prevalent one in use, is the tempera. The color pigment is taken


from berries or vegetable matter, mixed with the albumen ofeggs. A substantial base was formed by adding cedar, cherry,plum, or peach gum. This composition was applied whilemoist, employing the same method of painting in tempera asdid the old masters. The colors remain fresh and fast to thepresent day and are preserved by a rich gloss which willcrack and crumble if applied too thickly, as do the old paintingsexecuted in tempera. Quills were employed for the writing ofthese manuscripts and for the finer design work. All brushwork was made in Oriental style, holding the brush upright.Each line and design was constructed with a free swing ofthe hand, usually away from the body. Shading was producedby exerting various degrees of pressure upon the brush.

Influence of Oriental Designs

On the surface it may astonish the casual observer to find astrong influence of Oriental designs in the Pennsylvania German Illuminated Writings. The technique in the actual painting was Oriental. The small designs which give the beautifullydecorated, colored capital letters their full rounded form,depth, and finished appearance are typically Chinese. Thefundamental design of the wave line, in .all its modifyingforms comes from the same origin. This structure so essential for the beauty, symmetry, and balance in Fractur isemployed more often than perhaps any other design or motif.The original meaning of this ancient wave line presumablyindicated everything that juts out of water.

The question naturally arises, whence this strong Orientalinfluence in the European illuminated art, and, especially inthe later Pennsylvania German "Fractur"? The following historic event may answer this pertinent question in part. Theclimax of the great Mongolian and Turkish invasions intoEurope by way of Silesia, Germany, occurred in A. D. 1240.The decisive battle fought against these invading hordes wasnear Liegnitz and conducted by the great Piasten rulers withthe surrounding Princes and their armies. The defeat of theMongolian hordes was so decisive they were unable to returnto the Orient. Consequently they settled in and around Silesiaand gradually became assimilated in that territory. In those


ancient times the armies carried with them the culture and art

of their native lands which naturally also was assimilated.Out of this very region came one group of German pioneerswho developed a famous school of illuminated writings inPennsylvania at a later date. Much of the Oriental influencemay be attributed to this tragic source.

Three Schools op Pennsylvania German Fractur

In conclusion, there were three outstanding schools of"Fractur" in this country. One had its origin in the famousEphrata Cloisters (founded in 1730), and developed by thebrotherhood there. The draftsmanship, composition, and design were of excellent quality, but religious scruples prohibited the use of gay and fresh colors. Only a casual studywill enable one to recognize the fine work of this school becauseof the subdued and sombre colors.

Another school of art was developed by the capable schoolmaster, Christopher Dock (? to 1771), who was brought fromGermany to instruct the youth among the Mennonite andSchwenkfelders. His famous work was done at Skippack andSalford where he taught. He was an excellent master in theart of illuminated writing and unrestrained in his use of color.The influence of his art in connection with his school work

left a profound impression upon the talented students of hisday.

The third famous school came out of the Schwenkfelder

group who settled in Pennsylvania in 1734. Its rich culturalbackground found delightful expression in this art. Unquestionably the leading artist was Susanna Hiibner althoughmany other names might be mentioned. This school too wasfree and unrestrained in its use of color and produced excellentspecimens of the now lost art. A large collection of beautifulexamples are preserved in the Schwenkfelder HistoricalLibrary, Pennsburg, Pennsylvania.

Only one master remains today who is able to reproducecopies of this interesting art—Mr. John Souder, of Telford,Pennsylvania, a member of the Old Mennonite faith. He hascompiled several manuscript volumes of illuminated writingsas a hobby during the days of his retirement.

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN ILLUMINATED WRITINGS gl

BibliographyBorneman, Henry S.

Pennsylvania German Illuminated Manuscripts. Norristown, Penna.,Pennsylvania German Society, cl937. 150p.

Frederick, J. George

The Pennsylvania Dutch and Their Cookery. N. Y., The BusinessBourse, cl935. 275p.

Stoudt, John Joseph

Consider the Lilies How They Grow. Allentown, Penna., PennsylvaniaGerman Folklore Society, v.II, cl937. 333p.

Through the courtesy of the Pennsylvania Art Program, Index ofAmerican Design, a W. P. A. project, the writer exhibited a portfolio ofreproductions of Pennsylvania German "Fractur" along with severaloriginal specimens, and a few reproductions by Mr. John Souder.

The

Scale op Miles

Lower Merion Township(Heavy lines show present boundaries; dot-and-dash line, the original boundary with Upper Merion; dotted line,abandoned portion of boundary of 1844; shaded line, boundary of Welsh Tract; light lines, other divisions.)

Historical Gleanings South of Schuylkill

By Charles R. Barker

(Continued from Vol. II, No. 4, p. 329)

II. SURVEYS AND BOUNDARIES

Having outlined the genesis of the upper portion of theMerions, we now pass on to the lower portion.

Beginning at the extreme eastern end of the Manor ofMount Joy, and extending thence down Schuylkill to WestManayunk, there is a tract of land which was originally sold,not to Welsh, but to English and Irish, purchasers. Measuringapproximately three and a half miles in length, by one and ahalf in breadth, it thus includes about one-fifth of the areaof the present township of Lower Merion, and, as we shallsee, was excluded from the survey of the Welsh Tract, in1684.1

At the northern end of this tract, which was separatedfrom the Manor of Mount Joy by the line of Spring Mill road,a plot of 500 acres was laid off, in 1685, to John Holland, sonof Joshua Holland, of Chatham, county Kent, Old England,mariner, as part of the latter's purchase of 5000 acres inPennsylvania. Joshua Holland did not cross the ocean, butin 1683 gave his son John a power of attorney to sell 1000acres "so as the same be a mile distant from the Waterside or

River [Delaware] there." The latter came to Pennsylvania,and in 1685 obtained a survey of the 500 acres above-mentioned, which is described as "on the West side of Schuylkill River" and "near Upper Merion." About two months later,he sold it to George Collett, of Philadelphia.^

iPa. Arch., 2d Ser.; vol. XIX, pp. 14-5.

2Ibid.; p. 545; also 3d Ser., vol. I, pp. 17-8 — Phila. Deeds E 1,vol. 5, p. 370. The reference to Upper Merion shows the custom whichlater became official practice.

33


The new owner, who was the son of George Collett, ofClonmell, Tipperary, Ireland, seems to have been hopelesslycrippled, a year or two later, under a falling tree. He died in1687, leaving "all he had in this Country," by nuncupativewill, to his nephew Nathaniel Pennock.® In December, 1697,Christopher Pennock, Nathaniel's father, became also hisadministrator; and in the following spring, to meet the debtsof the estate, sold the whole plantation to Morris Llewellyn, ofHaverford township.^

Up to this time, there had probably been no settlement onthe land. But in 1708, Morris Llewellyn, "the elder," ofHaverford, conveyed to Morris Llewellyn, "the younger," ofMerion, a messuage and plantation of 400 acres of land, whichtoday would be bounded very closely by Spring Mill, Con-shohocken and Lafayette roads, and the Schuylkill river. Theplantation was significantly called "Indian Fields," and gradedsteeply towards the river, where it terminated in a suddenslope known later as "Breakneck Hill." Six years later, theelder Llewellyn conveyed the balance of his original purchaseto his son Griffith, ancestor of the Llewellyn family of LowerMerion.®

Here it may be asked why that part of the township whichis so remote from communications that it is the last to bebuilt up, should have been laid out first? The answer is, thatconditions have radically changed with the passage of twohundred and fifty years; for while yet no roads had beenopened, the nvers were the highways, and it was the Schuylkill, on which these Lower Merion plantations fronted, thatwas supposed to make them valuable.

3A. C. Meyers: "Immigration of Irish Quakers to Pa.;" p. 280.Phila. Admon. Book A, pp. 40-1.

•*Phila. Admon. Book A, p. 245 — Phila. Exemp. Recs.; vol. VII,p. 170.

®Phila. Deeds E 5, vol. 7, p. 75; and D 2, p. 56 — John Levering:Map of Lower Merion, 1851. For special articles on the Llewellynfamily and lands, see "Sketches, Hist. Soc. of Montg. Co.", vol. Ill,p. 206; and vol. VII, p. 68.

HISTOEICAL GLEANINGS SOUTH OF SCHUYLKILL 35

Adjoining the Holland purchase on the south was a tractof 1000 acres which appears to have been first surveyed toChristopher Pennock (whom we have already met) for hisson Joseph. Pennock's title was confirmed by patent,1-13-1689/90, when it appears of record that he had, in1686, bought the right from his brother-in-law, George Col-lett, of Tipperary (another acquaintance of ours), who hadhimself bought it, in 1683, from Francis and George Rogers,of Gorke, Ireland, original purchasers in 1681.

James Claypoole, merchant, of London, who emigrated toPennsylvania in 1683, thus writes to Francis and GeorgeRogers from London under date 28 1 mo. 1682:

"The Articles for the Pensilvania Compa. are printing, & I hope willbe done by next post, and then either Philys Ford or myselfe will sendyou one, I cannot tell wt. to write you abt. the deeds for Land, but yourswill be like mine and others wch, are approved on by men skilled in thelaw, and as to improving of land there I can say little at present but dofind my selfe more and more Inclined to goe."®

If one travels along the River road from Young's Fordroad to Hollow road, a distance of more than one and a halfmiles, he traces the Schuylkill frontage of the Pennock plantation, perhaps the largest tract ever surveyed to an individualin Lower Merion. In one corner is Mine Hill; in another, thevillage of Gladwyne; while Mill Creek, which empties into theSchuylkill near a third corner, flows through the tract fornearly a mile. In the center can still be seen the once noted butnow long abandoned soapstone quarry, while the names ofYoung's ford and Hagy's ford, which once connected theplantation with the Roxborough shore, yet survive in thenames of the roads which led to them.'

But Christopher Pennock never settled here. In 1686, hedisposed of 250 acres of the tract (covering the present site of

®Phila. Deeds H 10, p. 580 — Pa. Arch., 2d Ser.; vol. XIX, pp. 28,549-50 — Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog.; vol. X, p. 192.

TB. H. Smith: Atlas of Welsh Tract, Plate 23 — Levering: Map ofLower Merion, 1851.

36 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Gladwyne), and in 1693, he sold the remainder—750 acres—to Morgan David, of Merion.®, He died in Philadelphia a fewyears later, when about to make a visit to Ireland.® His sonJoseph finally settled in Chester county, where descendants ofthe name still flourish.

Morgan David's family took the name Davis. This seems tohave led to an unfortunate error on the part of a southernwriter who was tracing the ancestry of Jefferson Davis, andwho believed he had identified Morgan David as the progenitor. By the time the error was discovered, the book hadbeen published, thus conferring on "Jeff" a PennsylvaniaWelsh Quaker ancestry to which he was not at all entitled!

Thenext tract southof the Pennock property was a surveyof 500 acres made in 1684 to William Shardlow, a Londonmerchant, as a part of his purchase of 2500 acres of land inPennsylvania. Although Shardlow corresponded a good dealwith his agents here, respecting his other Pennsylvania lands,he seems to have had little interest in his tract on the Schuyl-kill, after selling a portion of it, in 1692, through his attorney,John Blunston, of Darby.^® He never came to this country. Byhis will, made in 1704, he devised all his lands to hissons-in-law, Joseph Collins and John Wightman. Both thesemen left wills,^^ but both failed to dispose of the LowerMerion property, and it was not until 1740 that their heirsfinally conveyed it to Richard Harrison, of Philadelphia.

The names of the grantors, as recorded, were John Wight-man, London, Esq., and wife Rebecca; Catherine Collins,London, spinster; Elizabeth Gary, London, widow; DavidJennings, parish of St. John Wapping, co. Middlesex, gent.,and wife Sarah; Edward Cowper, parish of St. Ann Soho,Westminster, co. Middlesex, hosier, and wife Mary; and

sphila. Deeds "I" 4, p. 459; and E 1, vol. 5, pp. 518, 520.

®Dr. Geo. Smith: "Hist, of Delaware Co., Pa."; p. 492 — Phila. Mo.Mte. Mins. (MS copy, Gen. Soe. of Pa.); vol. I, pp. 283, 285.

i®PhiIa. Deeds E 7, vol. 9, p. 53.

iiLogan Papers MSS Div., Hist. Soc. of Pa.

- HISTORICAL GLEANINGS SOUTH OF, SCHUYLKILL 37

Nathaniel Sanderson, citizen and draper, London, and wifeAnna. Probably not one of these persons had ever set foot inPennsylvania.^^

Next and last of the English and Irish purchasers wasWilliam Wood, whose 500 acres adjoined the Shardlow tract,the line between them beginning at the junction of Summitand Righter's Mill roads, and ending at the Schuylkill at FlatRock tunnel.^® Wood did not settle on this land, but on hisestate of "Mountwood," in Darby, where he became a prominentman, serving as Provincial Judge, Member of the Governor'sCouncil, and Justice of the Peace for Chester County.^^ Afterhis death and that of his widow, Susannah, their eldest son,Joseph, administered on their estates. In 1689, he was granteda patent for the Lower Merion property, which he sold, thesame day, to Catherine, widow of John ap- Thomas, whoalready owned a tract adjoining.^^

So we see that about one-fifth of the present township ofLower Merion, amounting to perhaps 3300 acres (althoughlaid out for 2500) was surveyed to natives of England andIreland, who, actuated only by motives of speculation, nevercame to settle on their lands. In time, the ownership passedlargely to Welsh families, who thus became the real settlers.

Of a township named either "Merion" or "Lower Merion,"there is no trace on Holme's map. But in the angle formed bythe Schuylkill river and the line of Blockley township (nowCity Line avenue), we find a tract marked "Edward lones &Compa being 17 Families."^®

i2Phila. Deeds G 1, p. 222, and H 15, p. 160. (The latter states thatboth John Wightman and Joseph Collins died intestate, but the meaningevidently is, intestate as regards this property.)

isSmith: Atlas of Welsh Tract, Plate 23 — Levering: Map ofLower Merion, 1851.

i^phila. Admon. Book A, p. 93 — Pa. Arch., 2d Ser.; vol. IX, pp. 630,626, 673, etc.

isphila. Exemp. Recs.; vol. I, p. 276; VII^ p. 272.

i®Thomas Holme: Map of the Province of Pennsylvania.

3g BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

'This was the first settlement by a group of persons withinthe present limits of Lower Merion. The purchasers themselves arrived in Pennsylvania nearly two months before William Penn, and their ti'act, to which they gave the name"Merion" (after the county of Merioneth, in Wales, fromwhich they hailed) was probably laid out to them soon aftertheir arrival, being confirmed by a complete survey in 1684.A draught of the original survey, showing the subdivisionsallotted to the several purchasers, is on file at Harrisburg, andwell bears out the statement made by Edward Jones in a letterto John ap Thomas, that "The end of each lot will be on ariver as large or larger than the Dye at Bala, it is called SkoolKill River." Actually, eleven of the seventeen purchasers weregiven river frontage, but the result was that the farm ofRees Jones (also called Rees John William), although betweentwo and three miles long, had an average breadth of only sixteen perches, and a "frontage" of only four perches

The boundary of Merion township extended along CityLine avenue from the bridge over the Schuylkill to a pointbeyond Overbrook station, P. R. R.; then northwestwardly toa point north of Narberth; then to the Schuylkill, which it metjust north of Ashland Heights; and finally, downstream tothe place of beginning. Its actual area was about five squaremiles, and it included nearly all the present borough of Narberth, the suburban section of Merion, Bala-Cynwyd and PennValley, and the localities of Ashland Heights and Pencoyd onthe Schuylkill.is

For a decade or more, conveyances of land within thepresent township of Lower Merion described it as "in Merion"(usually spelled Myrion or MeiHon) or "near Merion," or"between Merion and Haverford," according as it was, or wasnot, within the tract surveyed to Edward Jones and Company.

"B. H. Smith: "The Lands of Edward Jones and Company inMerion;" Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog.; vol. XXVI, p. 42 and accompanying draught.

i®Smith: Atlas of Welsh Tract, Plate 23 — Levering: Map ofLower Merion, 1851.

HISTORICAL GLEANINGS SOUTH OF SCHUYLKILL gQ

Then, little by little, the name "Marion" came to be applied toall the area north of "The City Liberty" (later Bloekley township, now the city of Philadelphia) and between the Schuyl-kill and Chester county (which then included Delawarecounty). Then the terms "upper" and "lower" began to beused, at first only relatively. No draught or description of atownship named either Upper Merion or Lower Merion, norany petition or order for the laying out of one, is known to thewriter; but as early as 1714we have a petition "of some of theInhabitants of Upper Merion, and adjacent settlers and someothers of the Inhabitants of Chester [county]," asking for theconfirmation of a road; while in 1725 another petition complains that "the Overseers of Lower Merion . . . have notObayed Your Order . . . and we the Inhabitants of UpperMerion have no Road to go to Market."^® Probably from aboutthis time, the boundary between the Manor of Mount Joy andthe Welsh Tract, came to be accepted as the dividing line between Upper Merion and Lower Merion, which it so remaineduntil 1804. Of this, we shall speak later.

In 1684, the great Welsh Tract was laid out. The warrantissued by William Penn for this survey directed ThomasHolme, the surveyor-general, to

"Lay out the said tract of land in as uniform a manner as conveniently may be upon the west side of the Schuylkill River runningsthree miles upon ye same and two miles backward, then Extend theparallel line with the River six miles and to run westwardly so far astill the said quantity of land be completely surveyed unto them."20

This "glittering generality," somewhat characteristic ofPenn, was indefinite enough to make any surveyor hesitate.However, the survey was made, and its courses and distances,duly returned, were confirmed, in 1687, by the Commissionersof Property, who thereupon gave warning that any attempt at

is^Phila. Quarter Sessions Recs.

2opa. Arch., 1st Ser.; vol. XII, p. 279. (In the original, the words initalics are almost illegible.)


encroachment upon the Tract would be judged "Illegal, Irregular and not according to Proprietary Method."^^

. The eastern end of the Welsh Tract included all of the

present township of LoWer Merlon except a small strip at thenorth end, and what had been surveyed to the English andIrish purchasers; it included, also, the borough of Narberth';and small jportions of the present Upper Merlon. With theoriginal township of Merion ("the land of Edward Jones andCompany") as its cornerstone, it extended westward acrossthe present Delaware county into Chester county, includingwithin its borders a number of the townships of both counties.Its total area, as surveyed, was 40,000 acres, but actually itwas probably much larger.®^

As already stated, the boundary between the Manor ofMount Joy and the Welsh Tract came to be accepted officiallyas the dividing line between the townships of Upper Merionand Lower Merion. Numerous records might be cited in proofof this. In June, 1790, the Court of Quarter Sessions receiveda petition, praying a road "from the Spring Mill [road]{which divides the Townships of Upper and Lower Merion)to a recorded road leading to Reese Op Edward's ford." Complaint was made by inhabitants of Upper Merion, in November, 1803, of the great inconvenience of not having a morecorrect boundary between the townships, whose separation"took place at an early period when they were but thinlyinhabited." Petitioners further aver that Upper Merion

"is a long narrow strip of land bordering on the River Schuylkillperhaps twelve miles in length . . . and the lower end for about twomiles not more than half a mile in width between Lower Merion

& the River Schuylkill which increases the burthen of the Overseers of

2ilbid., 2d Ser.; vol. XIX, p. 14.

22See, further, Thomas Allen Glenn: "Merion in the Welsh Tract";and Charles H. Browning: "Welsh Settlements of Pennsylvania." ThomasHolme's "Map of the Province of Pennsylvania" shows the bounds of theWelsh Tract; a very different map is reproduced in Smith's "Atlas ofthe Welsh Tract." Neither map agrees with the survey as confirmed in1687. . .

HISTORICAL GLEANINGS SOUTH OP SCHUYLKILL 41

the poor . . . and the Supervisors . . . there is a road laid out-fromMatson's Ford on Schuylkill to Radnor Meeting house they conceive maybe a convenient houndary."

In the following May, the jury of view appointed on thecase made its return, which was confirmed, and the boundarydeclared to be a line

"beginning at Mattson's Ford on the River Schuylkill, and Extending along the South side of the Road leading from there to Radnormeeting House, untill the said Line intersects the Division Line betweenthe Counties of Montgomery and Delaware."23

That the boundary as thus laid down did not coincide withthe present Matson's Ford road, is clearly shown by subsequent events. For more than a mile of its length, the road ranclose beside a little stream which receives the drainage fromhigh ridges on both sides. After the passage of nearly fortyyears, the numerous detours necessary in order to avoid washouts and flooded meadows must have all but obliterated, insome places, the true line of the road. In 1842, residents ofboth townships prayed the Court to have the road leadingfrom Matson's Ford bridge opposite Conshohocken to theGulph road near the Gulph school house opened as a townshipline road.

A commission appointed for this purpose accordingly madea resurvey, which did not altogether follow the course of the"old road." Two years later, William Davis, of Upper Merion,informs the Court that, in his opinion, it is exceedingly doubtful where the township line or boundary between the townships of Lower Merion and Upper Merion now is, and praysthat it be ascertained and established. And at the AugustSessions, 1844, the jury reports that it has established the road"as near the division line fixed upon by the commissioners . . .[in 1804] ... as can now be ascertained."^*

And so, at last, we have definitely separated Upper Merionand Lower Merion.

23Recs. Quart. Sess. Court, Montg. Co.; Dockets 1, p. 240; 3, pp. 203,228.

24lbid.; Dockets 7, pp. 494, 520 ; 8, pp. 113,157.

Early Pennsylvania Clocks and

Their Makers*

By 3Fred C. Sweinhart

A study of early clocks is a very appropriate subject tobring before a Historical Society. A clock links the past withthe present 'more intimately than almost anything that hascome down from former generations and can almost beclassed as a living thing. Early Pennsylvania clocks, the subject of this study, represent a well defined period and are thecreation of a limited number of craftsmen, in most instancesworking alone or with an apprentice, in private residences orsmall shops. These early clocks should be of special interestto Montgomery Countians, as one of the earliest clockmakersin America, David Rittenhouse, began his career ifi Norritontownship, this county, first as a clockmaker and surveyorand later as an astronomer and public man. He was in factone of the leading astronomers of his age, as the members ofthis society are well aware.

Clocks as we know them today, that is, pendulum clocks,run by weight or steel spring, are really not very ancientcontrivances. Hugens, a German, is said to have adopted thependulum to the clock in 1662. This approximately coincideswith Penn's advent to Pennsylvania in 1682. It thus appearsthat the development of the modern clock is co-extensive withthe colonization of America. The last of the thirteen colonies,Georgia, was founded in 1732, roughly a generation before theoutbreak of the Revolution. Although by this time clock making had reached a considerable development in Europe, evidence points to the fact that it was not very extensive inAmerica.

•Read before the Society April 26, 1941..

42

EARLY PENNSYLVANIA" CLOCKS AND THEIR MAKERS 43

At the time of the Revolution Philadelphia was the largestcity in the colonies, and Pennsylvania was one of the richestand best developed states in industry and agriculture andshipping. Then as now, our iron masters were far in the lead;then as now, we led in textiles. The Pennsylvania cabinetmakers were famed and, led by Rittenhouse, Joseph Ellicottand Seneca Lukens, our clockmakers were not surpassed inAmerica.

David Rittenhouse was born in 1732 and died in 1796. (Hislife was almost contemporaneous with Washington's—1732 to1799—and indeed he was much associated with Washington,especially during the latter's Presidency or from 1789 untilRittenhouse's death in 1796.) He is said to have made his firstclock at the age of 17 (1749). This was a wooden clock andthe records show that he and his brother Benjamin made brassclocks in 1760. The Pennsylvania Historical Society has oneof these early clocks. This is a brass face, 30-hour clock in avery crude case. Another David Rittenhouse 30-hour clock,very similar to the above, was owned in the Schwenk family.Joseph Wills was another early Pennsylvania maker, as wereAdam Brant, of New Hanover; Jacob Godshalk, Philadelphia,and Augustine Neyser. Their clocks and cases are very similar,30-hour, 10^ inch square brass dials, plain square-top cases.Undoubtedly these clockmakers were contemporaries, andtheir clocks the earliest Pennsylvania clocks. We know DavidRittenhouse dates, which establishes the date 1750 to 1760, forthese clocks, and that, I conclude, is the beginning of clock-making in Pennsylvania. Likewise all evidence points to thefact that not many tall clocks were made after 1840 to 1850,so certainly the scope for this study covers a limit of timefrom 1750 to 1850 and I dare say all of the early Pennsylvaniaclocks, that have come to my attention, come within thatperiod. The surprising thing is the amazing rapidity withwhich clockmaking developed. By 1774 Rittenhouse and Ellicott had made their masterpieces and these clocks are not sur-:passed by anything in existence today; but more of this later.

It has been reliably estimated that in this period Pennsylvania had 300 clockmakers. It is estimated that the average


clockmaker made four or five clocks a year. Jacob Hage, thesecond of three generations of Montgomery County clock-makers, is said to have made more than 100 clocks, mostly 30thour, employing helpers. Jonas, one of his sons, of Spring-town, Bucks County, according to family tradition, made 12clocks during his career. Seneca Lukens, a famous clockmakerof Horsham Meeting, made clock number 79 in 1793, he diedin 1829. Joseph Ellicott made clock number 60 in 1774, hedied in 1780. Granted 300 clockmakers averaged 30 clocks eachduring their productive period, that's 9,000 clocks. It is notunreasonable to suppose that 10,000 clocks were made. Therecertainly were hundreds. It would be very, very interesting toknow just how many of these clocks are in existence today.Many were neglected and destroyed, especially 30-hour clocks.Those that survive are widely scattered, but of course a greatmajority are still in the limited area in which they were made.

The making of the tall clock employed two different craftsmen, the clockmaker and the cabinetmaker.

Two types of clocks were made, 30-hour and 8-day, theearliest clocks were 30-hour. These had small brass dials, about10^ inches square, later an arc of a circle was added at thetop, and to this was sometimes added a segment of a sphere,superimposed with the maker's name engraved upon it, orsometimes the name of person for whom the clock was made.David Rittenhouse embellished the clock which he made forAnthony Wayne with a portait of General Wayne engravedon the segment of the sphere. Painted dials were soon introduced and by far the greater number of tall case clocks havepainted dials; and many have a moon and a mechanism toshow the day of the month, both very interesting and useful.Early English clocks usually show the day of the month, butrarely the phases of the moon; this seems to be an Americaninnovation.

All these Pennsylvania clocks followed very nearly thesame pattern. The variations were mainly in the skill and careand quality of the workmanship. Similarity of plans andparts, etc., leads to the conclusion that there was a commonsource of material, and it is, a matter of record that much of

EARLY PENNSYLVANIA CLOCKS AND THEIR MAKERS 45

the material was imported from England, even to the dials.However, other records show that some clockmakers madetheir own castings and forgings. It is certain that prior tothe Revolution there was not a very extensive brass industryin the colonies. There is evidence that wholesalers importedthe parts and sold these parts to the clockmakers, who cut thegears and assembled the clocks. The painted dials are invariably of sheet iron, many bear the names of Osborne, Birmingham, and Wilson. Large numbers of dials were made of thesame design, they varied in size usually 12, 13, and 14 incheswide. I have previously referred to the 10^^ inch square earlydials.

The 30-hour clocks are run by one weight, attached to apulley upon an endless chain. Raising the weight every twenty-four to thirty hours provides the motive power. Many havea date mechanism, few have the moon. (I have seen two 30-hour clocks with the moon.) The eight-day clocks have twoweights on cords (originally cat-gut) and pulleys, one weightruns the clock and one the strike. Raising the weights everyseven or eight days provides the motive power, each cord inthis case being wound on a drum with a key. The eight-dayclocks very often are equipped with a moon. In early days thiswas undoubtedly a great convenience, as many activities weretimed by the phases of the moon. Today we have almost forgotten about the moon, with our abundance of lighting, butoccasionally the query arises, what is the stage of the moon ?I find it a great convenience to consult my clock.

The case was a thing apart from the clock and was so considered by the early owners. The clock was complete in itself,the case was merely a fine place to hang the clock. To illustratethis point I quote from the will of Jacob Schwenk, this county,dated June 2, 1849, 'T give and bequeath to my beloved wifeMary, two bedsteads with bedding, stove and pipe, clock andcase, and one cow, etc." Some early clocks were hung on wallbrackets, awaiting the convenience of a case. I have a 30-hourAdam Brant that certainly was made before 1800, which neverhad a case. I am inclined to think, from the simplicity andsimilarity of the cases, that David Rittenhouse and Joseph


Wills, and other early makers, made their early cases. As thecases became more elaborate, it is certainly true that theywere made by real cabinetmakers. David Evans made a casefor Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, the works were by David Rittenhouse. In 1788 he madea case for David Rittenhouse's daughter upon her marriage,the works were by Benjamin Rittenhouse. Thomas Affleck(1740 to 1795) made a case for the last clock made by DavidRittenhouse. Edward James, 1741 to 1798, made a case for aclock by William Houston, this clock is in the PennsylvaniaMuseum of Art. I dare say there was always close collaboration between the clockmaker and cabinetmaker, and it iscertainly true that after 1800 in most instances the clock-maker sold the clock and case complete.

When these clocks were made, of course the primary consideration was to acquire a timepiece, the case was incidental.Today with our homes so well equipped with watches andclocks, our tall clock is primarily looked upon as a piece offurniture. If you have a fine case, you have a fine clock. Theearly cabinetmakers certainly did create some beautiful piecesof furniture. Styles in clock cases followed the designs of theleading schools of cabinetmaking, Chippendale, Hepplewhite,and Sheraton, but of course there were many variations andmany crude examples were created. The clock case is one ofthe few pieces of furniture that is not subjected to wear, suchas a table, chair or bureau, or chest, etc. It is indeed treatedwith great deference. How many times have we warned thechildren, "Don't touch the clock," or warned the one whodoes the cleaning, "Don't move the clock." At the same timethe clock case is one of the most complicated pieces of cabinetwork, as practically all the operations of cabinetmaking areemployed, moulding, mortising, dovetailing, turning, mitering,inlaying and carving. It is not unusual for a clock case to showten or twelve different mouldings. It was really an opportunityfor a cabinetmaker to employ his finest art and many reallybeautiful cases were made. The broken arch or scroll top seemsto have been the favorite with the Pennsylvania cabinetmakers. The Quaker cabinetmakers made the bonnet top.

EARLY PENNSYLVANIA CLOCKS AND THEIR MAKERS 47.

Various woods were used, Philadelphia cabinetmakers usuallyused Mahogany as in their other furniture, country cabinetmakers used Walnut and Cherry, Cherry was a favorite wood;For the 30-hour clock many Poplar and some Pine cases weremade, these were usually stained with India Red, to simulateMahogany, and sometimes they were painted. There are a fewApplewood (a fine cabinet wood) cases, and I have seenCurley Maple and one Butternut (White Walnut), a very finesoft wood. The height of the case was determined by the lengthof the cord required to run the clock eight days, or chain in thecase of the 30-hour clock, usually the 30-hour clocks were thetallest. Apparently eye-level or a little above was sought as themost desirable height. The width of the cases was determinedby the width of the dial, 12,13, or 14 inches. Quite a few havecome down to us with the feet knocked off or the scroll cut offto accommodate low ceilings; these can be restored, if properlydone, without destroying their charm.

With the advent of the Yankee shelf clocks, beginningabout 1825 and thereafter (they were peddled by wagon fromhouse to house, for 10,15 or 20 dollars each), the Pennsylvaniacabinetmakers were gradually put out of business. It seemsthat there were none here who had the initiative or vision orinclination to compete with the Connecticut clockmakers, andby 1850 the Pennsylvania clockmakers had practically disappeared. Shelf clocks by that time so completely dominatedthe clock business that tall case clocks fell into disrepute andwere relegated to storerooms, attics and kitchens, and manywere neglected and destroyed. Revival of interest in tall caseclocks, now under the name of "Grandfather" clocks, is said tohave begun with the Centenial Exposition in 1876, and hascontinued to this day. Those who have clocks that have comedown in the family can be justly proud of them and those whoare fortunate enough to acquire a good clock and case, at areasonable figure can consider themselves lucky.

Before the revival of interest in Grandfather clocks manyof them were sold for a song, $5.00 or $10.00 for a 30-hourclock, $25.00 to $30.00 for an eight-day clock. As late as theclose of the last century a good clock was more often sold for

48 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETy OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

less than $100.00 than for more. From the beginning of thecentury until 1930, the sum of $200.00 or $300.00 was notunusual to pay for a good clock. Well-known makes and finecases in many instances brought more. Today a good 30-hourclock should be bought for $100.00 to $150.00 and a goodeight-day clock from $150.00 to $250.00.

It is a matter of interest to know what our great grandfathers and grandfathers paid for their clocks. John Hoffwas a leading clockmaker of Lancaster County, 1740 to 1816,and his ledger is extant. I quote three entries:

June 26,1805

Jan. 11,1806

James Knox bespoke a 8 day clock for 50 dollars tobe done again fall

To clock he took away today 18/15/0

Jan. 8,1806 Christian GraybillTo 1 8 day clock 17/5/- " $46.00

March 81,1806

May 7,1806

Jacob Hershey, Manor Twp.Bespoke an 8 day clock 14" dial moon for 46 dollars

to be done in 2 weeks $46.00

To clock took away 17/5

(Note the rate of exchange ISi^c to the shilling, $2.66 tothe pound.)

William Fraser was an apprentice and journeyman clock-maker under Samuel Parke, in Philadelphia, 1814 to 1821.Thereafter he moved to Lancaster County. He sold clocks only,for $32.00 to $35.00. Cabinetmakers received $15.00 to $20.00for the cases.

Jacob Bachmann, a cabinetmaker of Lancaster County,madecases only. His custom was to make two cases for whicljthe clockmaker paid him one clock and he then made a thirdcase and had a clock and case to sell.

There is an appraisal of the estate of Henry Lewis Mon-tandon, of Lancaster, on record, dated July 29-30, 1802, hereare two entries:

To, 2—8 day clocks £24 ($32.00 each); To, 1—8 day movement £6($16.00).


John Bechtel, druggist, Schwenksville, has a GeorgeHagey clock in his store, which was bought by his grandfatherin 1831, and the price is understood to have been $50.00. Hisfather bought this clock at his father's sale in 1879 or 1880,for $35.00, this was considered a high price at the time. Theclock is in about perfect condition and has been running continuously since the original date of purchase 1831 (110 years).This is a 14 inch clock with an alarm, the only one I have seen,this was probably a late innovation.

There is a clock made by Samuel Breneisen, Reamstonen(Reamstown), near Reading. He was one of the last makers,1840 to 1860, and a very good one. This clock shows theoriginal cost mark $80.00, rather a high price. David Ritten-house made his masterpiece in 1774, this clock was priced at$640.00.

From these references it seems reasonable to assume thatthe average eight-day clock and case originally sold for around$50.00, of course special order clocks undoubtedly cost more.

The clocks of forty-five different makers have come to myattention in my preparation of this article, not counting manyclocks that do not bear the maker's name. I have alreadyreferred to several makers, it will be interesting to examinethe list.

All evidence points to the fact that David Rittenhouse(1732 to 1796), Adam Brant, Augustine Neyser, Joseph Willsand Jacob Godshalk, were the pioneer Pennsylvania clock-makers. They all show 30-hour and 10square brass faces ofsimilar design and construction, and date about 1750.

The Solliday family of clockmakers.—^There were at leastthree generations of clockmakers in this family and theyprobably made more clocks than any other Pennsylvania clockfamily. I have seen clocks of six different members of thefamily and I am sure there were others whose clocks I havenot seen. It. is said.-that some of these makers were farmers,pljdng the clock trade in the Winter and slack seasons. Thename was spelled variously and the list includes:

John Solede, Sumney Town, one of the earliest.Jacobe Salede, Bucks County


Jacob Solliday, North HamptonBenjn. Solliday, Bucks County (sometimes marked B.C.)Danl. H. Solliday, Sy-Town (Sumne3d:own)George Solliday, MontgomeryvilleFrederick SollidayJohn Nicholas SollidayAll these were clockmakers more or less closely related.

All together the family probably accounted for several hundred clocks.

The Hagey family of clockmakers.—There were threegenerations of Hageys, grandfather, father and sons, andinclude the names of grandfather Samuel Hege, Franconia,who made upward of: one hundred one-day clocks, some eight-day. Father: Jacob Hege, Lower Salford Twp. (some clocksmarked Hage), said to have made 100 clocks, employinghelpers. Sons: George Hagey, John Hagey, Jonas Hagey.

George Hagey, Trappe, was probably the most noted of theHageys, and continued to make clocks until about 1850. Thebrothers, Jonas Hagey, Springtown, Bucks Co., and JohnHagey, Philadelphia, made but very few clocks.

Joseph Ellicott, Buckingham, Bucks Co. (1732 to 1780), afamed maker.

Lukens family, father and son. Seneca Lukens died in1829, lived at Horsham Meeting. Isiah Lukens, the son, Philadelphia.

Soloman Parke, Philadelphia, 1791Soloman Park & Son, 1806Soloman Park & Company, Philadelphia, 1808 to 1821Soloman Park had the largest clock manufactory in Penn

sylvania and employed many workmen of different nationalities, German, French and Swiss. Business was apparently discontinued in 1820-21.

William Kulp, Lower SalfordThomas Lindsay, Frankford, a contemporary of Seneca

Lukens

Soloman Yeakle, North Hampton, Cy.John J. Zuber, Upper HanoverDaniel Oyster, Reading


Daniel Scheid, Sumney TownSamuel Jefferies, PhiladelphiaWilliam Houston, PhiladelphiaSamuel Breneisen, Reamstonen (previously mentioned)John Norton, York Town (York)Jacob GrigerJohn Kline, Amity Twp., Berks Co.Daniel Heffley, Berlin, Somerset County(The Author's Grandfather's clock 1831)Jedediah Weiss, BethlehemGeorge Fix, ReadingJosiah 0. Beitel, NazarethThomas Voight(Clock in the Pennsylvania Historical Society Philadel

phia, made for Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, after he left thepresidency.)

Benj. Norris, New BritianBenj. Morris, ReadingJohn Heilig, Montgomery Co.Thomas Joyce, PhiladelphiaFrederick Dominick, PhiladelphiaChristian Bixler, Philadelphia—Reading and EastonJacob Moyer, SkippackDavid Seip, Bucks CountyWilliam Bevens, NorristownMich'l. Bush, EastonBenj. Rittenhouse, brother of David Rittenhouse (Clocks

marked Phila. Co. & Worcester Twp.)Jacob D. Custer, Norristown (1805 to 1872)Joseph Thomas, Norristown and Penn Square, was an

early President of Montgomery National Bank.This completes the list. You will note that these makers

represent a very limited territory, notably Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Berks and Lancaster Counties. This bears outmy contention that these clocks remain largely in the communities where they were made. Note the absence of any representation from Chester County. Where are the Chester Countyclocks? Lancaster County had an especially fine lot of makers.

52 BTJliLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

and there were clockmakers in all of the early-formed counties,which includes fifty of the sixty-seven counties of the State.It can almost be said that their number was legion, but by1850 the grandfather clocks were all made and the industryhad practically disappeared.

These clocks have now all run into the third generation,some four and five and six generations, with very littledeterioration and should continue to be a service and pride andpleasure for many more generations. As one gentleman saidto me, "My father wound this clock every evening aftersupper. I do the same and I hope my eldest son will appreciateit enough to carry out the tradition."

The Richards (Reichert) Family ofM ontgomery County*

By Captain H. M. M. Richards

As a subject which has not yet appeared amongst theexcellent publications of the Historical Society of Montgomery County, I have felt that it might prove to be of someinterest, and be of some genealogical value, were I to presentcertain data concerning this family, one of the oldest in thecounty, and one of some little merit.

' It follows that the limited space allotted me will preventsuch being done "in extenso," therefore, I trust I may be pardoned if I confine myself, largely, to the branch of which I ambut a small part.

The progenitor of the family, in this country, was JohnFrederick Reichert, the son of a German army officer, born inthe town of Augsburg, Germany, in 1679.

As he was one of the originators of the Swamp LutheranChurch, and the family records show that he settled in theunbroken forest, it would seem to bear out the belief that hecame over with Daniel Falkner in 1700, or, at the least, notlater than 1703. He purchased 150 acres of land in New Hanover township, of our present Montgomery County, for ^30,from John Henry Sprogel. The deed, executed in the City ofPhiladelphia, is dated May 24, 1720, but this is no indicationof the time of his settlement, as deeds were frequently notplaced on record until long after the actual purchase. Theprice paid would seem to show that he was a man of meanseven upon arrival.

When he first occupied the land the whole district waswooded; there were many Indians and no roads save the pathsof the forest.

In the Spring of 1728 occurred the only engagement with

•Read before the Society April 27, 1929.

68

54 BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP MONTGOMERY COUNTY

the Indians which ever took place in Philadelphia county. Aband of Shawnees led by a so-called "Spanish Indian chief,"on their way to join the Delawares in a war with the Flatfeet,attacked the German settlers near Falkner Swamp, and committed many depredations, until finally repulsed. Some fivesettlers and several Indians were wounded. A petition for aidwas sent the Governor on May 10, 1728, signed by seventy-seven persons, among whom was Johannes Reichert. A military company was formed and a nearby mill used for defensepurposes, possibly that in the proximity of the present Penny-packer's Mill.

At first Reichert and his neighbors were obliged to carrytheir grain to the nearest mill, which was on the PerkiomenCreek, some ten or twelve miles distant, probably the flour millof Hans J. Heide,^ erected about 1730, near the Pennypackerfulling mill, erected 1755. Later a white mare was procured byseveral of them and used for that purpose.

Upon arrival Reichert stopped under a large white oaktree, and there erected his first shelter, which we may presume to have been the ordinary log cabin. This gave place toa two-story frame dwelling, in existence 1853 and later, knownin the family as "The Old Place," which stood one mile southof the Swamp Churches, to the left of the road that leadsto Pottstown, about one-quarter mile past the Lutheranparsonage.

He quickly prospered, became a man of means, and wasprominent in his vicinity. He became a. naturalized subjectof Great Britain on September 25, 1740. His wife's name wasAnna Maria. Of her nothing more is known save that she wasborn 1685, died March 18, 1756, and was buried at New Hanover.

His death occurred in 1748, and according to the SwampLutheran Church records, he was buried on September 22,1748, aged 69 years.

In conformity with the requirements of the Penn Proprietors, the name became anglicized to Richards at an early date.

^Hans Joest Heydt—See Historical Sketches, Vol. IV, page 118.

THE RICHARDS FAMILY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY 55

He had issue as follows:a. Hannah Richards, b. 1713; d. (in confinement) Feb. 7,

1746; m. George Schoener.b. Caspar Richards, b. 1715; d. Mar. 15, 1774.c. Matthias Richards, of this record.2. Matthias Richards, b. Jan. 9, 1719; d. Mar. 28, 1775.He was a farmer and scrivener; a most useful and edu

cated man of his day, ranking superior to the generality ofhis neighbors. He was prominently identified with religiousmatters, being one of the Building Committee of the SwampLutheran Church, 1767.

Becoming quite wealthy, he enlarged his patrimony by thepurchase of a piece of land near Herrington, on the "SwampRoad," in Douglas township, whence he removed and kept apublic inn, then a most honorable occupation.

About 1748 he married Ann Margaret Hillegass, b.Aug. 15, 1726; d. Jan. 6, 1773; daughter of John FrederickHillegass, who was an uncle of Michael Hillegass, the firstTreasurer of the United States. With his wife he now'liesburied in the graveyard of the Swamp Lutheran Church.

They had issue as follows:a. Christina Richards, b. May 6, 1749; d. Sept. 26, 1778;

m. Nov. 13, 1770, Philip Federolf.b. Elizabeth Richards, b. Mar. 29, 1751; d. Oct. 12, 1821;

m. July, 1774, David Burkert.c. John Richards, b. Apr. 18, 1753; d. Nov. 13,1822, buried

at Swamp Lutheran Church; m. 1st, May 2, 1775, SophiaHeebner, b. Feb. 17, 1755; d. Nov. 19, 1800, daughter of Johnand Anna Heebner; m. 2nd, Feb. 16, 1801, Mrs. CatherineKrebs, daughter of Philip Koons, and widow of Michael Krebs.She died without issue.

He was a scrivener and progressive farmer; carried onstorekeeping for about twenty years, and was an iron-master,though not giving personal superintendence to the work; appointed, June 6, 1777, Justice of the Peace for PhiladelphiaCounty, then quite a distinction,' which position he retainedpractically all liis lifetime; Judge of the Court of CommonPleas for Montgomery County upon its organization, Nov. 1,


1784; member of the 4th Congress, Jan. 18, 1796—Mar. 3,1797, as a Whig, successfully contesting the election of JamesMorris; Pennsylvania State Senator, 1801-07; member of thePennsylvania Convention on the Federal Constitutionof 1787;during the Revolutionary War one of the magistrates beforewhom citizens were required to take the oath of allegiance tothe American cause; member of Lodge No. 8, Free and Accepted Masons, one of the oldest in Pennsylvania, whichderived its existence, June 24, 1766, from the Patriot GrandLodge, or "Ancients," formed Jan. 24, 1764; it met near theValley Forge Encampment of 1777-78, when it was attendedby many Continental officers including Washington; a man ofinfluence and wealth; a faithful official and an enterprisingcitizen.

d. George Peter Richards, b. July 22, 1755; d. Oct. ,21,1822; m. Magdalena Schneider, b. Sept. 27, 1758; d. Oct. 16,1822; daughter of Henry Schneider, of the Swamp, and wifeCatherine, born Reinert.

He was a prominent and influential man; a farmer, surveyor, scrivener, and part of his time, a storekeeper and in theiron business.

During the Revolutionary War he was Major of the 6thBattalion, Philadelphia County Militia, Apr. 3,1779; on Oct. 4,1779, he was chosen by the General Assembly, a Sub Lieutenant of Philadelphia County, and commissioned as such Oct. 16,1779, with the rank of Lieut. Colonel, also on Mar. 29, 1780;subsequently a Justice of the Peace, both while he lived inBerks County (Dale Forge and Furnace), and in Pottstown,Montgomery County.

e. Matthias Richards, of this record.f. Anna Maria Richards, b. Jan. 17,1762; d. Apr. 17,1816;

m. June 1, 1779, Dr. George Frederick Beitenman, b. Aug. 17,1754: d. Sept. 16, 1826; son of George Frederick Beitenmanand wife Margaret, born Gilbert. He was a European Germanand Lutheran, a regular bred and skilful physician; Captain3rd Class Milita, Nov. 26, 1781.

3. Matthias Richards was born Feb. 26, 1758; d. Aug. 1,1830.


About one year after his father's death, while still ayouth, he went to Reading and became apprenticed to Mr.John Rightmyer to learn the saddler's trade.

When, in 1777, the British threatened Philadelphia, although not eligible for military service, because of his age, hevolunteered and became a private in Col. Udree's 2nd Battalion, Berks County Militia, and with it served from Aug. 5,1777, until Jan. 5, 1778, when the troops went into winterquarters at Valley Forge, participating in the battles ofBrandywine and Germantown.

On April 18, 1780, he married his first wife, Maria Missi-mer, b. Apr. 27,1759, sister of Henry Missimer, of near Potts-town. He then moved on the Swamp Road, leading from Reading to Philadelphia, just in Montgomery County, one-halfmile below Boyertown, where the line divides it from Berkscounty, his barn being in the latter county. Here he kept aninn, also farmed and followed his trade of saddler.

Shortly after his first marriage he was elected, in 1780,major of the 4th Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia, ofwhich Anthony Bitting was Lieut. Colonel.

He lived with his wife but a little over one year, when shedie'd, Aug. 20, 1781, in giving birth to a son, who died eightdays afterwards.

On May 8, 1782, he married his second wife, Maria SalomeMuhlenberg, b. July 13, 1766; d. Mar. 13, 1827.

She was the granddaughter of the justly renowned Col.Conrad Weiser, who as Head of the Indian Bureau of theProvince of Pennsylvania, shaped not only its destiny but,indirectly, that of our entire country, and, indeed, the wholeworld; and who, as Lieut. Colonel in command of the 1stBattalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment, guarded the entirefrontier along the Blue Range, and prevented the encroachment of the savages into the lower counties.

She was the daughter of the equally celebrated patriot anddivine, the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D.D., so justlyknown as the Patriarch of th6 Lutheran Church in America.

In addition, she was the sister of the following, amongstothers:

gg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

a. John Peter. Gabriel. Muhlenberg, .a Major General during the Revolution and a close friend of Washington; Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania;in 1785-87, Vice-President of the Commonwealth; member ofthe 1st, 3rd and 6th Congress; elected U. S. Senator, Feb. .18,1801, but resigned a few months later; June 30, 1801. Supervisor of Internal Revenue for the State of Pennsylvania;July, 1802, until death. Collector of the Port of Philadelphia.

b. Eve Elizabeth Muhlenberg, wife of Rev. ChristopherEmanuel Shulze and mother of Governor John Andrew Mel-chior Shulze.

c. Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg; member ofthe State Legislature, 1780-83, and its speaker; trustee.of theUniversity of Pennsylvania, 1779-86; in 1787 a delegate tothe State Convention to consider the Constitution of the UnitedStates; member of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congress, and theFirst Speaker of the United States Congress.

d. Margaretta Henrietta Muhlenberg; wife of the learnedLutheran divine, John Christopher Kunze, of New York City.

e. Gottlieb Henry Ernestus Muhlenberg;.the eminent divine and botanist of Lancaster.

For a couple years after his second marriage Matthiasoccupied his home near Boyertown, then removed to Reading,in the Spring of 1802; and, with his wife, now rests in theCharles Evans Cemetery.

For some forty years, at various times together, he servedas a Justice of the Peace; he was Associate Judge of theBerks County courts, 1791-97; Inspector of Customs, 1801-02;member of Congress, 1807-11; .Collector of Revenue in 1812;Clerk of the Orphans' Court in 1823.

They had the following issue:a. Henry Muhlenberg Richards, b. Mar. 7, 1783; d. Dec.

20, 1822; m. Apr. 26, 1809, Elizabeth Otto,.b. Nov. 27, 1789;d. June 5,187.7; daughter of Dr. John Augustus Otto, who wasson of Dr. Bodo Otto, Senior Surgeon in the Revolution.

He was, for a long time. Deputy Surveyor General forBerks County; auditor, 1813-16; Clerk of Quarter Sessions,1821-22.


b. Mary Catharine Richards, b. May 28, 1785; d. Feb. 17,1866; m. Mar. 21, 1816, Isaac Myers, b. Mar. 1, 1787; d.. May15, 1864.

He was a Lieutenant in the 16th U. S. Infantry, War of1812, at the battles of Fort George, Canada, May 27, 1813,Stony Creek, etc.; Adjutant, 1st Pennsylvania Regiment,1814-15.

c. Matthias Swaine Richards, b. Feb. 7, 1787; d. May 11,1862: m. Margaret Myers, b. Oct. 6, 1785; d. Nov. 18, 1858.

Deputy Surveyor General for Berks County, 1823-37;Justice of the Peace, 1827; Associate Judge of Berks CountyCourts, 1829-46; appointed, April, 1833, by the Governor, acommissioner to organize the Philadelphia and ReadingR. R. Co., and for many years, a manager of it and variousrailroads in the anthracite coal regions; an active organizerand director of and in many local activities, banks, etc., andalways highly respected for his great ability and strictintegrity.

d. Margaretta Henrietta Richards, b. Aug. 17, 1789; d.Nov. 28, 1861—single.

e. John Christopher Richards, b. May 28, 1791; d. June 3,1791.

f. Charles Richards, b. June 10, 1792; d. April 30, 1823.Deputy Attorney General for Berks County, 1821-23—No

issue.

g. Elizabeth Richards, b. Feb. 20, 1794; d. Feb. 23, 1872;m. Apr. 24, 1817, James Farmer McElroy, b. Jan. 24, 1787;d. Apr. 16, 1839—No issue.

He was a captain in the 16th U. S. Infantry, War of 1812,from April 9, 1812, to June 15, 1815.

h. Charlotte Francisca Richards, b. Jan. 19, 1801; d.Mar. 6, 1867; m. Nov. 6, 1827, George Washington Oakeley,b. July 21, 1807; d. June 2, 1874, son of Robert and MariaOakeley, of Philadelphia.

i. Maria Salome Richards, b. May 30, 1802; died ininfancy.

j. John William Richards, of this record.

gQ BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

4. John William Richards, b. Apr. 18, 1803; d. Jan. 24,1854.

He studied the languages, principally, under Dr. JohnGrier, of the Reading Academy; read theology under Dr.Henry Augustus Muhlenberg, his first cousin, from May 4,1821, to Sept. 21, 1824.

Licensed, Sept. 22, 1824, to preach, as a candidate ofTheology, in the now venerable Lutheran Ministerium ofPennsylvania, and ordained as Pastor, by the same, on June 3,1828, in Trinity Lutheran Church, Reading, Pa.

On Nov. 6, 1825, he was unanimously elected as pastor ofthe congregations at New Holland, in Lancaster County, andvicinity, where he remained until Apr. 29, 1834, when he wascalled to be pastor of the Augustus Church at Trappe, whichpulpit had been occupied by his grandfather. Dr. Henry Mel-chior Muhlenberg, who, with his wife, and son. General PeterMuhlenberg, lie buried in its graveyard.

Here he was married to his wife. Miss Andora Garber, onMay 21, 1835, who was b. May 21, 1815; d. May 26, 1892.

She was from another old Montgomery County family, thedaughter of Henry Garber and Susanna, born Paul, who livedin their beautiful homestead, "Garwood," some two and a halfmiles south of Trappe.

In response to a providential call, on Apr. 10, 1836, he became the pastor of St. Michael's Church at Germantown. Inall his changes he was guided by what he regarded as a clearindication of the will of Providence, and always carried withhim the love and greatest respect of his parishioners, fromwhom he parted with mutual deep and sincere regret.

In 1843 he was elected Secretary of the Ministerium, andunanimously re-elected for the two following terms when nolonger constitutionally eligible.

On Nov. 16, 1845, he became pastor of St. John's Churchat Easton, when, on Nov. 1, 1850, he finally accepted a call toTrinity Church at Reading, having previously refused thesame three times.


On May 27, 1850, he was elected President of the Minls-terium, and unanimously re-elected to the same office for thetwo follGwing years.

On August 6, 1851, the degree of Doctor of Divinity wasconferred upon him by Jefferson College.

His sudden death was a great shock to his family and theentire church. He was universally lamented and beloved.

The issue of himself and wife were as follows;

a. Adelaide Susanna Richards, b. Dec. 26,1836; d. Oct. 31,1915; m. Oct. 2,1882, Jacques Van der Beak Graig (his secondwife), b. Dec. 22, 1817; d. Aug. 8, 1884; son of Joseph Craigand wife Maria, born Van der Beak—no issue.

He was a prominent iron manufacturer and business manof Reading. He built the beautiful Lebanon Valley R. R. bridgeover the Schuylkill River at Reading, which was destroyedduring the railroad riots of 1877, also the Askew bridge onNorth Sixth Street.

b. Andora Elizabeth Richards, b. June 9,1839; d. Sept. 17,1889; m. 1860, John McKnight, b. Jan. 8, 1838; d. Dec. 20,1882, son of David McKnight and wife Elizabeth, bornHiester.

He was a prominent business man of Reading; in the CivilWar, Captain 42nd Regt. P. V. M.

c. Matthias Henry Richards, b. June 17, 1841; d. Dec. 12,1898; m. June 14, 1866, Sarah Maginley McClean, b. Dec. 1,1841; d. Sept. 30,1920, a daughter of the Hon. Moses McClean,of Gettysburg, and wife Hannah Mary, bom McConaughy.

He graduated from the Reading High School July 3, 1856,one of the four members of its first class; from the Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, Pa., with highest honors, in 1860,and from its Theological Seminary in 1864, having, previously,for a short time, been a tutor in the college.

While a tutor, upon the invasion by the Confederates, in1863, he enlisted in Co. A, 26th Emergency Regt. PennsylvaniaVolunteers, was made a corporal, and took part in the battleof Gettysburg with its accompanying campaign.

His life work was as the Professor of English Languageand Literature in Muhlenberg College, Allentown, from 1868


until his death, save for a short period as pastor of a congre-gatlon in Indianapolis.

In addition he gave the public schools in AUentown thebenefit of his ripe experience in educational affairs; he did avast amount of literary work; made many public addressesand preached many sermons.

In June, 1889, his "Alma Mater," Pennsylvania College,honored him and itself, by conferring upon him the degree ofDoctor of Divinity.

He died universally lamented. A very large concourse ofclergymen, professors, students and citizens, paid their respect to his memory on that occasion.

d. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg Richards, b. Aug. 16, 1848.He graduated from the Reading High School in 1864, and

from the U. S. Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Md., in 1869,with highest honors.

In 1863 he participated in the battle of Gettysburg and itscampaign; served under Sheridan in 1864; in 1869-70-71 sawmuch active service throughout Africa and Europe; at Tunis,Africa, in 1870, to avert a threatened outbreak against theChristians; actively identified with the operations of theFranco-German War of 1870-71; the Communistic Outbreakand Carlist Insurrection of the same period; in the Revolutionary Outbreak at Panama of 1873; with the Yaqui Indiansand Tiburon Island Savages in 1874; served throughout theSpanish War in the West Indies under Sampson, and volunteered for active service during the World War.

In 1893 he was appointed, by Governor Pattison, a memrber of the commission on "Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania,prior to 1783." His exhaustive work on the "Frontier Fortsof the Blue Range" has become the standard authority on thatsubject.

On April 27, 1918, appointed, by Governor Brumbaugh, amember of the Advisory Commission for the Preservation ofPublic Records, and, on June of the same year, he was appointed a member of the Pennsylvania War History Commission.

THE RICHARDS FAMILY OF-MONTGOMERY COUNTY 53

There was conferred upon him, on June 16, 1910, byMuhlenberg College, the degree of Doctor of Letters (Litt.D.)

After his active military service he was, for many years,in the iron business, holding the position of Treasurer andDirector in the large American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company until absorbed, in 1916, by the Bethlehem SteelCompany, when he retired.

Without solicitation, or desire, on his part, he was urgedto become Treasurer of the City of Lebanon to which he finallyconsented in 1918, serving, most acceptably, until the expiration of his term of office in 1920. He is actively identified withmany local activities; is a member of many military orders,historical and genealogical societies, in this country, Englandand France, and is the author of numerous publications of anhistorical and genealogical character.

He was married Dec. 26,1871, to Miss Ella Van Leer (vonLoehr), daughter of Branson Van Leer and Drucilla Turner,his wife.

She traces her descent, on the paternal side, from Wernervon Lbehr, Patrician Mayor of Mayence, Germany, 1521, andon the maternal side, from many distinguished English lines.

Records from Bibles in Possession of Histori

cal Society of Montgomery County

BIBLE OF EZEKIEL RHOADS PRICE

Marriages

Ezekiel Rhoads and Lydia Zimmerman was Married December 21st, 1810.

Wm. Z. Rhoads and Sarah T. Scheetz was Married April22nd, 1858.

Wm. Z. Rhoads and Elizabeth Coulston was Married Dec.13th, 1860.

Births

Hannah Rhoads Daughter of Abraham and EllionerRhoads Was Bom May fourth, 1784.

Ezekiel Rhoads son of Abraham and Ellioner Rhoads WasBorn Janiary thirteenth, 1737.

Jacob Rhoads son of Abraham and Ellioner Rhoads WasBorn December the fourth, 1738.

Margret Rhoads Daughter of Abraham and EllionerRhoads Was Born May fifth, 1742.

Hester Rhoads Daughter of Abraham and Ellioner RhoadsWas Born September ninth, 1744.

Ross Rhoads Daughter, of Abraham and Ellioner RhoadsWas Born the ninth of May, 1747.

Marcy Tyson Daughter of Cornelius and Barbara TysonWas Bora November the Twenty-Seventh In the year 1740.

Ellione Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Marcy RhoadsWas Bora the Twenty Second of October, 1762.

Abraham Rhoads Son of Ezekiel and Marcy Rhoads WasBorn September the fifteenth, 1764.

Elizabeth Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Marcy RhoadsWas Born December the third, 1766.

64

BIBLE RECORDS 65

Margret Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Marey RhoadsWas Bom April the fourtenth, 1769.

Lidia Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Marcy Rhoads WasBorn February Twenty first, 1771.

Barbara Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Marcy RhoadsWas Born, Janury the twenty Second, 1773.

Hannah Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Marcy RhoadsWas Bom December the first, 1774.

Anna Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Marcy Rhoads WasBom March the fourteenth, 1777.

Ezekiel Rhoads Son of Ezekiel and Marcy Rhoads WasBora September the tenth, 1779.

Joseph Rhoads Son of Ezekiel and Marcy Rhoads WasBorn July the Twenty Second, 1783.

Lydia Zimmerman Daughter of William and SusanahZimmerman was born February Srd, 1788.

Mary Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Lydia Rhoads wasbom August 5th, 1812.

Susanah Rhoads Daughter of Ezekiel and Lydia Rhoadswas born July 21st, 1815.

William Rhoads Son of Ezekiel and Lydia Rhoads was bomJune 21, 1818.

Elizabeth Rhoads daughter of Ezekiel and Lydia Rhoadswas born November 23rd, 1821.

Ezekiel Rhoads, son of Ezekiel and Lydia Rhoads was boraFebruary 15th, 1825.

Deaths

Susanah Rhoads departed this life June 1st, 1820, agedfour years, ten months, 10 days.

William Mattson Departed this life February 13th, 1870(?) aged Sixty nine years one month 13 days.

Elizabeth wife of Ezekiel Rhoads Departed this Life September 4th aged forty five years and one month and 2 Days.

Ezekiel Rhoads departed this life June 22,1876, aged fiftyone years four months and seven days.


Elizabeth Rhoads departed this life Oct. 23rd, 1871, AgedForty nine years & Eleven months.

Mary daughter of Ezekiel And Elizabeth Rhoads was' BomJanuary 7th, 1851. Departed this Life October 13, 1875. Aged24 years, 9 months and 6 days.

Margret Castner Daughter of Ezekiel and Marcy RhoadsDeparted this Life September 30th, 1809, Aged about 40 years.

Marcy Rhoads Wife of Ezekiel Rhoads Departed this LifeSeptember 18th, 1811, Aged about 71 years.

Hester Rhoads departed this life June 29th 1812 aged 68years.

Ezekiel Rhoads senior departed this life January 2, 1813,aged 76 years and 8 days of age.

Rosannah Rhoads departed this life July 31st, 1818, aged71 years.

Elizabeth Fara departed this life March 28th 1824 aged58 years.

Barbara Rhoads departed this life March 23rd 1836, aged63.

Hanah Shaw departed this life October 23rd, 1838, aged64.

Anna Rhoads departed this life December 26th, 1856,aged 79 years, 9 months & 12 days.

Ezekiel Rhoads departed this life on the morning of the21st of March, A. D. 1845, aged 65 years, 6 months and 10days.

Lydia Rhoads Wife of Ezekiel Rhoads departed this Lifein the evening of the 12th Dec. A. D. 1847. Aged 59 years 10months and 9 days.

• Sarah T. wife of Wm. Z. Rhoads departed this life on themorning of Sept. 30th A. D. 1858. Aged 37 years.

Elizabeth C. wife of Wm. Z. Rhoads departed this Life atsix o'clock in the morning of April 9th, 1870. Aged 58 years,2 months, 15 days.

Wm. Z. Rhoads departed this Life on the evening of the9th October A. D. 1872 Aged 54 years 3 months and 18 days.

BIBLE RECORDS 67

HOFFMAN FAMILY BIBLE

Masriages

Esther R. Hoffman was Married to Samuel Sibley in theyear of our lord December 24th 1850. By the rev; thomasWinters.

Births

Esther R. Hoffman was born July the 24 in the year of ourlord 1831.

Margaretann Hoffman was born December 3 in the year ofour lord 1832.

Thomas P. Hoffman was born October 2 in the year of ourlord 1834.

Emanda Hoffman was bom October the 3 in the year ofour lord 1837.

Lemuel Hoffman was born may the 29th in the year of ourlord 1842.

John Hoffman, Sr., was bom the 28th of October in theyear of our lord 1798.

Ann Hoffman was born July 21st, 1809.

Esther H. Potter was bora January 12th, 1863. Daughterof John E. and Margaret A. Potter.

Deaths

Esther R. Sibley Departed this life March the 7th in theyear of our lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty five,1855.

Esther H. Potter Departed this life December 13th Tuesday morning at half past seven in the year of our Lord OneThousand eight hundred and Seventy, 1870.

gg BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

John Hoffman, Sr., died Nov. 17th, 1880, (Wednesdayafternoon Quarter to 3 o'clock) in the 83d year of his age.

Ann Hoffman died July 1st, 1885, Wednesday Morning at5 O'clock, aged 76 yrs. the 21st of July.

Thomas P. Hoffman Died Sept. 29th, 1900, age 66 years.

Amanda Hoffman Died Oct. 27th, 1901, 64 yrs. of AgeOct. 3d, 1901.

Lemuel Hoffman died Mar. 23d, 1915, in His 73d year.

Margaret Ann Potter died Sept. 26th, 1918, at Drexel Hill,Delaware County, Pa., Age. 86.

The wedding certificate of John Hoffman and Ann Price,April 8,1830, is pasted in the Bible.

WISMER FAMILY

In an Old German Book of Sermons

Barbara Wismer was born the 9th of March, 1766.

Joseph Wismer was bom the 23rd of July, 1752.

His wife Barbara was bora 9th of March, 1766.

Elizabeth was born the 8th of December, 1782.

Barbara was bora the 13th of June, 1785.

Caterina was born the 23rd of January, 1787.

Ester was born the 12th of January, 1791.

Henrich was bom 11th of March, 1792.

Henrich was born the 10th of March, 1794.

Joseph was born the 9th of April, 1797.

Jacob was born the 23rd of February, 1799.

Mary or Maria was born the 15th of December, 1801.

Dianna was bom the 10th of May, 1805.

Report of Recording Secretary

Rebecca W. Brecht

The three regular meetings of the Society hare been held during Aepast year with President Fegley presiding at each one.

At the annual meeting February 22, 1941, these officers were elected:

President Nelson P. Fegley, Esq.First Vice-President S. Cameron Corson

Second Vice-president Charles Harper SmithThird Vice-President George K. Brecht, Esq.Recording Secretary Rebecca "W. BrechtCorresponding Secretary Ella SlingluffFinancial Secretary Annie B. MaloneyTreasurer Lyman A. KratzLibrarian Emily Preston

Trustees

Franklin A. Stickler

Mrs. A. C. Jones

Catherine Preston

Nancy P. HighleyH. H. Ganser

The trustees in their annual report made special mention of thegood work done by our librarian, Emily Preston, in taking care of thebooks, pictures and relics from the Estate of Dr. Willoughby H. Reed.

At the meeting of April 26, 1941, Lyman A. Eratz reported for theCommittee on revision of By-Laws of the Society. Mr. Kratz read theBy-Laws in full, noting suggested changes and the By-Laws, as presented, were unanimously adopted.

Mrs. Stuart Molony, Chairman of the Essay Contest Committee,presented the successful contestants, who in turn read their essaysbefore the Society. First prize to Mary Ann Gehress, Jenkintown HighSchool, Subject, "The Settlement of Jenkintown."

Second prize to Ellen Bartleson, Eisenhower High School, Norris-town. Pa., Subject, "Dawsfield."

Third prize to Jack Miller, Collegeville-Trappe High School, Subject, "A History of the Perkiomen Bridge Hotel."

Fourth prize to Augusta Hall, Eisenhower High School, Norristown,Pa., Subject, "Norriton Presbyterian Church."

69

YO BULLETIN OF HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

The following papers were presented during the year:

"Outing at Ambler, Pa., May 25, 1940" by Herman T. Lukens;"Portraiture," by Mrs. Stuart B. Molony; "Schwenkfelder HistoricalLibrary, Pennsburg, Pennsylvania," by Dr. Elmer E. S. Johnson; "SomePhases of the Battle of Germantown," by Dr. E. C. Sohl; "Greetings fromState Historical Commission," by S. K. Stevens; "Books About Montgomery County," by Kirk Bryan, Esq.; "Old Clocks," by Frederick C.Sweinhart, and "Fractur Work," by Rev. Lester K. Kriebel.

Report of Corresponding SecretaryElla Slinglufp

NEW MEMBERS

John P. Arnold Ellen Bartleson

Irma A. Hammond

DEATHS

Abby Wager Dr. Mary P. H. Hough

RESIGNATIONS

Elinor Brecht Mrs. Raymond M. JaunichJessie B. Read

Report of Librarian

Emily K. Preston

The following books have been added to the library:

Rust of Virginia, by Ellsworth Marshall Rust.Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858, by Albert J. Beveridge. 4 vols.The Molly Maguife Riots, by J. Walter Coleman.Washington in Lincoln's Time, by Noah Brooks.Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. I.Lloyd Family, by H. W. Lloyd.History of Perry County, by Silas Wright.Memoir of Henry Armitt Brown, with Four Historical Orations.

reports

Life and Military Career of WinAeld Scott Hancock, which also containssketch of Hon. Wm. H. English, by Hon. John W. Forney.

History of Erie County, 1884.History of GlearAeld County, by L. C. Aldrich.History of Centre and Clinton Counties, by John Bair Linn.Men of Mark of Cumberland Valley, Pa., 1778-1876.History of Susquehanna County, by Emily C. Blackman.Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the Historical Society of Penna.,

compiled by Paul Bleydon.Wilderness Chronicle of Northeastern Pennsylvania, by S. K. Stevens

and H. D. Kent.

Just Among Friends, by William Wister Comfort,The Keelboat Age on Western Waters, by Leland D. Baldwin.Eminent Women of the Age, by James Parton, Horace Greeley, etc.Men of Our Times, by Harriet Beecher Stowe.The Bible in Iron, by Dr. Henry C. Mercer.History of the World's Columbian Exposition.

In pamphlet form:

Grand Consolidated Vigilant Society—Golden Jubilee.Cave in Eastern Pennsylvania, by Charles M. Wheatley.A Woman in Steel—Rebecca Lukens (1794-1854), by Robert W. Wolcott.

Manuscript:

Captain James Armstrong, Penna. Line, Continental Army, and hisbrother, Lieut. John Armstrong, Penna. Line, Continental Army, byCaldwell Woodruff, M. D.

Diaries of Susan Yerkes, 1853-1855; 1873-1882.Copy books of Anna Yerkes.Montgomery County Loan Certificate to John B. Moyer.Bond of George W. Jacoby to Commissioners, 1867.Affidavit of John Snyder and Christ. Zimmerman as Assessors of Wor

cester Twp.Order to pay James Mahoney for digging foundations for Perkiomen

Bridge.Bill—Isaiah Wells to Morris Jones, 1803.Bill—John Righter, Assessor.Certificate of election of Jesse Bean, 1800, by James Shannon and

Stephen Porter, Judges.Certificate of Isaac Gerhard, captain, that Abraham Hunsbergerls name

was never on his list, 1810.Letter from Samuel Aaron to John Freedley concerning purchase of land,

1843. Draught of the land on back.Draught of lots at Main and Barbadoes streets, by Laurence E. Corson,

1840.


Mftrriage certificate of James W. Davis and £}11 Louisa Maloney, Dec. 26»1848.

Collection of about 100 deeds for land in Norristown and surroundingtownships.

Ambler Family Chart, descendants of Joseph Ambler and Sarah Jer-man—9 generations.

Curios:

Crayon holder used in drawing classes at Keswick Institute.Instruments used in making hammered brass work, and piece of the work,Doll.

Votes for Women pin.Piece of wood from the sounding board in St. John's Church, Richmond,

Va., in which Patrick Henry made his "Liberty or Death" speech.Tin type album.Hat of the Hibernian Society, 1752.Fan.

Beaded bag.Checker board—leather cover.

Curling stick.Instrument for making hooked rugs.Tatting shuttles.N. G. P. buckle and buttons.

Buttonhole cutter.

Sewing holder in form of bird.Autographed fan—wood.Watch pocket.Cane of Archibald Thompson.Scarf.

Boa Constrictor game.

Photographs and pictures:

Great Valley Presbyterian Church, Old.

Railroad Arch Culvert, near Hamburg, Pa., of South Mountain andBoston R. R.

Birthplace of David Rittenhouse (2).

Reproductions of Currier and Ives Lithographs (12).Carriers' Annual Greetings (Several).

White's Great Cattle Show.

Professor and Mrs. Sunderland.

Mrs. Mary Sower—Early private school teacher.Conversational Club.

Dinner to survivors of the Young American Base Ball Club, 1870-74.

The Historical Society of Montgomery County has forits object the preservation of the civil, political and religioushistory of the county, as well as the promotion of the studyof history. The building up of a library for historicalresearch has been materially aided in the past by donationsof family, church and graveyard records; letters, diariesand other manuscript material. Valuable files of newspapershave also been contributed. This public-spirited support hasbeen highly appreciated and is earnestly desired for thefuture.

Membership in the Society is open to all interested persons, whether residents of the county or not, and all suchpersons are invited to have their names proposed at anymeeting. The annual dues are $2.00; life membership,$50.00. Every member is entitled to a copy of each issue ofThe Bulletin free.

Historical Hall, 18 East Penn Street, Norristown, withits library and museum, is open for visitors each week dayfrom 10 to 12 A.M. and 1 to 4 P.M., except Saturday afternoon. The material in the library may be freely consultedduring these hours, but no book may be taken from thebuilding.

To Our Friends

Our Society needs funds for the furthering of its work, its expansion,its growth and development. This can very nicely be done throughbequests from members and friends in the disposition of their estates.The Society needs more funds in investments placed at interest; theincome arising therefrom would give the Society an annual return tomeet its needs. Following is a form that could be used in the makingof wills:

I HEREBY GIVE AND BEQUEATH TO THE

historical society of MONTGOMERY COUNTY,

PENNSYLVANIA, THE SUM OP

DOLLARS (5 )

Documents

HISTORICAL 50CIETYhsmcpa.org/images/thebulletin/1941vol3no1.pdf · Preston, Librarian TRUSTEES Franklin A. Stickler, Chairman Mrs. a. Conrad Jones Katharine Preston H. H. Ganser Nancy